Okami: A tale of a Goddess's Revival
by The Humanized Marionette
Summary: In the land of the sun, a dormant evil awakens after a century's sleep at the hands of a man fed up with comparisons. This great evil causes a great ripple effect of many awakenings, all of which stir an even older evil from its great slumber. Consequently, these foolish entities' antics quickly bring back an even greater divine force. They bring back the mother of all things.
1. Introduction Chapter I

In this world, there are many tales, both ancient and new. Those that are spun in the years of the modern times are quint and humble compared to the tales of the past-which have grand extravagance to them. The tale that I weave out for you, young knowledge seeker, is quite possibly the grandest of them all. I do hope you will pay close attention, for this tale holds much excitement and tragedy.

It started long, long ago in a tiny hamlet known as Kamiki, laid nestled in a grove of proud and noble cherry blossoms. Each, and every, tree around the quiet burg was revered as a god. However, this village was not without its dark secrets. For you see, to sedate the ravenous hunger of _Orochi_, a fearsome cave dwelling beast, a young maiden was offered as a sacrifice, at the annual festival. With a body like a mountain and eight heads mounted on necks; the size of tree trunks, its blood red eyes, alone, were said to curse anyone who gazed upon them. No one dared disobeyed the horrific beast.

Upon the nearing of the night that a sacrifice was meant to be made, a strange figured appeared standing on a cliff top just above the village. It looked to be a woman, a mysterious maiden. The maiden, for the most part, stayed in that one spot; keeping a watchful eye on the village. Unless someone left the village and when she patrolled the streets at night. Those who managed to see the maiden were almost bewitched by her divine, near godly beauty. Her body was well endowed, anyone who laid eyes upon her could confirm. Her eyes were fairly large and round with luscious eye lashes that complemented her reddish orange irises. Her legs were long and slender, as too were her arms, her hands were dainty and each finger looked very long, she had "baby birthing hips" as some called it, bubblegum pink lips, skin as white, fair, and flawless as the snow, a pair of wolf ears with snow white fur, and a well endowed large chest. But, what captivated the villagers the most was her kimono and her hair.

Her hair was long, going down to about the middle of her calf, and looked very wavy. It was as white as snow with darker and and it looked to be silky soft. The style her hair looked to be in was almost like brush heads; with different levels of dark ink-black colorings as it went down, with two brush head-like twirled bangs resting on her small, narrow shoulders and a brush head/ice cream swirl-like; with twin swirls, to the back of her hair. Then her Kimono-which only made the woman more beautiful-that stood out against any kind of background.

It had four colors. A white colored base with orangish red and light reddish pink with light gray colored swirl detail ; on the inside of the kimono. The front of the Kimono had: sleeves; which connected underneath the underarm to reveal the shoulders, that went far past her hands and had a reddish pink lining on the top and bottom with a large reddish orange swirl going down the length of both sleeves and an M-cut; not a fold, with a white meets reddish pink lining at the top. It revealed a very slight amount of her cleavage, but it retained much modesty. Underneath the chest area was a reddish pink ribbon wrapped around into a large bow in the back, this actually made it look like the Kimono was simply two pieces sewn together and were held in place with that ribbon. The Kimono came down to a sort of upside down V cut that, like the M cut, was not a folding and had the same kind of white meets reddish pink lining.

Then, at the back, the Kimono was a bit more plain. It had a much more rounded V cut that came from where the M cut was; this was as well not a fold, and came down to a pinched back flare bottom; twice at the sides and once in the middle. Then, finally, to finish it all off, her legs and feet were covered with thigh high reddish pink silk stockings that opened up at the heel and the start of her toes.

Because of how brilliantly white her skin, hair, and clothing was, the villagers dubbed this woman _Shiranui_. But, because of her unexplainable beauty, actions, and the wolf-like ears on her head-in place of human ears-they assumed she was a familiar or a witch of _Orochi_...

There was, however, one villager that took it upon himself to face this beautiful, yet mysterious maiden. This villager, this warrior, was named _Nagi_, and he had attempted many times to challenge the maiden. But, his attempts were thwarted by the deceptive maiden, for her movements were swift, graceful, elegant, and her deceptive brute strength. A single punch from the woman nearly shattered an enter bone and a single toss could send the enormous warrior flying fifteen feet away. Truly, this maiden was a cunning and tricky adversary that could possibly never be bested.

Before long, the night of the accursed festival had arrived. A white plumed arrow heralded the coming sacrifice. Piercing the sky, the arrow sunk its shaft squarely into the home of _Nami_, the village's most beautiful maiden. _Nagi_, harboring a secret love for _Nami, _was enraged by this sign. Determined to put an end to _Orochi_ once and for all, _Nagi_ traveled to the beast's cave in place of his beloved.

The _Moon Cave_, a place as dark as evil itself, served as _Orochi's_ home. As _Nagi_ stood bravely before the entrance, a beast appeared; eyes glowing crimson upon eight thrashing necks. _Orochi_ stood tall before him, anxious for another sacrifice. _Nagi_leapt with incredible grace, swinging his blade valiantly. On and on he sliced, well into the moonless night, but _Orochi's _hide was like steel-the blade left nary a scratch. At long last, _Nagi_, his energy spent from the intense battle, dropped to his knees fatigued; gasping for breathe. He knew he was staring death in the face.

It was then that the enchanting maiden appeared, jumping down from some over head drop off of the cave. As if to protect_Nagi_, she stood her ground before _Orochi_. In the darkness of the cave, her far skin and white hair shone brilliantly. Alas, it was_Shiranui_, the maiden that dwelled outside the village. The maiden bared her teeth and producing a low growl like a wolf; revealing the several wolf-like teeth she had, she leapt towards_Orochi_ with clenched fists and murder in her eyes. _Orochi_ reared its terrible heads, readying its fangs for battle. The beast and maiden struggled wildly, thrashing about in the darkness.

Mysterious and terrifying, the spectacle continued. When the monstrous serpent breathed columns of mighty fire, _Shiranui_countered by summoning gusts of divine wind with ink soaked fingers and graceful strokes of her fingers and when _Orochi_ closed in on _Shiranui_, fingers dripping and glistening with darker than dark black ink-a gigantic tree suddenly sprouted forth to shield the maiden. _Shiranui_ fought gallantly to gain the upper hand, however. _Orochi_; protected by a mystical power, was not easily bested.

_Shiranui:_ skin painted with crimson blood and various gashes and battle wounds, lips cut and bruised, Kimono torn asunder into insignificant scrapes of cloth, majestic hair dyed scarlet red, and weary demeanor, unstably stood exhausted before the mighty _Orochi_. To see once a maiden with godly beauty reduced to such a sight, it was heart breaking. _Orochi_ saw a chance to strike what would be the finally blow against the bloodied and dying maiden, but _Shiranui_ refused to give in, and, with her last ounce of strength, the majestic and bloodied maiden looked heavenward and unleashed a melodiously elegant melody; which sounded oddly like a wolf's howl. Suddenly, the black clouds overhead dissipated, and the light-from the moon-glinted off_Nagi's_ sword as a beacon of hope.

Guided by his sword, _Nagi;_ who had been taking shelter in the shadows, stood proudly to face his adversary. Channeling all his strength into his scarred and battered arms, he leapt ferociously toward _Orochi_; his sword poised high. The golden sword in his hands danced like a puppet on a string. One by one, _Orochi's_ fearsome heads separated from their owner. Then, finally, with one last slash, the last head fel along with _Orochi's_ broken body into a lake of its own blood and in that instant, the curse that had plagued the villager's for so long had been lifted. As the battle subsided, the sun once again shone in the sky; albeit slightly dimmer than normal.

As _Nagi_ was about to celebrate the triumphant victory, he took note of the state _Shiranui_ was in. The fair maiden; lying on the ground, had succumbed to _Orochi's _poison and struggled to breathe. Scooping up and covering the maiden in his arms, _Nagi_returned to Kamiki. When they reached the village, Shiranui was no longer moving. She was placed on the ground in front of a guardian sapling, sprawled out in a snow-angel style. With the villagers all gathered around the maiden, the village elder reached out and took the maiden's right hand; gently stroking the back of it. He uttered countless apologizes to the maiden upon the entire village's behalf, for assuming her _Orochi's_ witch and servant.

Shiranui did not respond with words, for she had little to no energy or breathe to even speak. She replied with her hands, using the last big of ink that soaked her fingers to write the words, "Never did I get angry, peace for this village and world is all I desired" into the air. The words stayed there, for a few seconds, before the maiden's beautiful and elegant eyes closed shut as if drifting off into a deep slumber.

At the cost of the beautiful and godly maiden's life, peace was finally returned to the village. In honor of _Shiranui's_ heroic exploits, the village erected a shrine and placed a statue of the maiden when she was last seen; right before her fight, within it.

_Nagi's_ sword was christened "_Tsuykuomi_" and palced inside the moon cave. The villagers all looked forward to an age of endless peace... 

_However... this is not the end to the story, for there is much more to this tale than most people know._


	2. Introduction Chapter II

_ 100 years had passed since Nagi and Sharanui's heroic exploits. It happened so quickly that no one in the village really took notice..._

The _Moon Cave_, where _Tsukuyomi _was enshrined, was where it happened. The cave was as dark and dank as it was back then. The shadows clung to everything inside it, the darkness filled the spots that shadows did not, it was like evil itself used this cave as a home away from home. Entering into what once was _Orochi's_ horrific chamber of slumber and death was a figure, a mysterious tall man cloaked in shadows and darkness. This figure sauntered up to the sword; stabbed into the ground beneath a bell and archway, with a determination driven swagger. He gazed upon the sword, practically scoffing at the legendary blade.

"Is this the legendary sword...?" He asked himself; doubt and uncertainty filled his voice, "Is this _Tsukuyomi_, the sword that was used to banish the dreaded _Orochi_?"

Gazing upon the magnificent blade, the figure was forced to bask in its glory. The shape; and color, of the blade felt like a moon against the clouds of a black night. The handle itself actually looked like clouds and the top guard looked like a cloud with a golden moon on top of it. Then, wrapped around the shockingly razor sharp blade was a ancient looking rope; one of divine fabrication, in a sort of bow with a exorcism slip of paper and this strange reed or grass around it as well.

"No..." he murmured as he grabbed onto the sword's hilt with both hands, "it couldn't be..."

He began to pull and heave at the large sword, using all the strength he had. But, little did the figure realize, that the sky had changed. While it was still indeed pitch black with no ambient light, the sky had shifted to a very sinister and ominous dark crimson color.

"It's just a legend... nothing but a fairy tale!" He shouted as the sword was ripped out of place.

When he did, there was the briefest of pauses, a very solemn calm before a very dark storm. When the pause ended, eight giant shadows of colossal dragon necks and heads; each one had a unique helmet of sorts. They all stared intensly, with greedy crimson red eyes, at the figure. A devilish gleam in their eyes showed almost perfect visions of death, destruction, and chaos. Upon seeing the shadowy heads, the figure instantly dropped the sword with a loud clatter and recoiled back; trembling violently. It was then that the spot where _Tsukuyomi _had been delved in now spewed forth a sickening purple colored steam that spiraled around the hole upwards till dissipating; like lost souls.

Unable to take such a close proximity to the creature, the figure proceeded to spin around and sprint off from the creature's back, onto the stone floor, and kept on running towards the way he came in. But, it was not to be, as he ran one of the shadowy heads shot out towards him; causing him to panic so greatly that he did not notice the little step-down pool thing he seen before. Quickly the figure turned to face the monstrosity before him, just in time to see that ungodly abomination rear one of its eight shadowy heads right in front of him.

"O, he who seeks power..." it started; breath like it recently used tar as mouthwash, "he who has broken my bonds... speak the words, "_I wish darkness unto the world._" Utter that prayer unto me, and release my power."

The monster's voice was deep and thunderous as time itself, and accompanied with the crimson red eyes that easily looked into his very soul, true terror was well enlaced into the figure's psyche. The figure could not speak, for he had lost his voice to the terror the monster put off. He hesitated, for several seconds, before crawling back, getting up, and running away from the ungodly creature. Upon seeing the man's reaction, the monster raised its main, mighty head and let out a horrific roar that shook the very earth and made the blood in veins run cold and the heart shallow its thumping.

Onward the figure ran, with all his strength into each panicked stride he took, but alone he was not, for the creature was right on his tail. The man did not look back, even as he heard the mammoth creature burst out the front of the _Moon Cave_ and let out another one of its horrific roars. He kept running, ignoring the crunching and snapping of the wooden arch, ignoring the thunderous boom and clashing of rocks being violently blown out of place. He kept sprinting towards the village; unaware of the destructive typhoon of energy the monster unleashed from its body. This energy took form into something horrid, a giant wave of burning destruction that pulsated from its body onward without a seeming end. It scorched and killed all in its path of obliteration, not caring for the plant life or animal life or human life it took in its wake.

The energy ripped proud, tall trees from its roots, it tore the ground asunder, flinging rocks and giant pieces of earth from the very ground. It turned the sky a fiery crimson of hatred and anger; before quickly turning an ink black, and left fire and darkness in its wake. The energy charred the plant life it touched and blackened the ground it touched to an ashy, ink color. It was utter annihilation...

_ A horrible tragedy suddenly swept over the land. However, there was one village that seemed to escape the terrible curse, the tiny settlement of Kamiki enjoyed the protection of a sacred tree. It is here that the real story begins..._

In front of Konohana, Kamiki tallest and proudest of Cherry Blossom trees, was the statue of Shiranui. She was posed in a defensive pose, like she was ready to punch straight through her enemies heart; yet still retaining her feminine charm and beauty. It was in danger, a rock, the size of a small horse that had been caught in the tornado of destruction now flew in a trajectory that would smash into the statue. But, a force would not allow this, no, a divine entity would not allow this to happen. As the rock closed the distance between it and the statue of her, a being dressed in a divine Kimono; various colors of pink, peach shaped holes on her chest and buttock, see through clothes wrapped around her here and there, and other kimono aspect, flew in the rocks path and effortlessly destroyed it.

The entity was beautiful; as to be expected from a wood sprite. She had her ink black hair split into two large locks that went down to her knees and had slight blush on her cheeks. Strange ear rings dangled from both ears and a strange symbol was imbedded into her fair, flawless skin. It was Sakuya, Konohana's tree sprite.

"How troublesome!" She said; her voice silky smooth and gentle, "This is just like the ancient prophecy of doom..."

Sakuya partially turned to look at the statue, "What has transpired to bring about such calamity...?" She murmured.

The wood sprite's face grew a very serious expression, one of grim knowing, "We must act quickly, there is no time to lose!"

The sprite then turned her entire body to face the statue of the beautiful maiden; who was a great god when alive. She knew what must be done, but she also knew that with how little power she had left, how greatly it had diminished during the years she protected the village, that she might be unable to do what must be done.

"My powers, while diminished over the years I've protected this area, might not be enough to provide more time for myself in this world..." she murmured softly to the statue, "Amaterasu..." she called as she drew a circle in the air with her hand, "now is the time."

The circle she had drawn in the air formed, materialized into an object. It was a divine instrument, a tool of divine retribution, a divine mirror with a outline of flickering fire around the reflective mirror's edge. As it materialized, Sakuya continued to speak to the statue.

"We have never needed your power more, shine your divine light upon this broken and polluted world. Let your heavenly rays become our hope as you guide us all!" Prayed the wood sprite.

The sprite flicked her wrist and sent the divine mirror spinning and cutting its way through the air; making a large arch towards the statue. Once it reached the statue's back it stopped; in the blink of an eye, and hovered in place. This divine instrument, forged from the holy flame of Moegami himself, gave divine power to the statue, to the body of Amaterasu. It turned her skin from cold hard stone to silky smooth and warm flesh, pumped her veins back up with blood once again, and even started to get her heart's pumping and _thud-thud!_ going. Then, last to come back, was the goddess's soul, the divine entity's drive, her personality, everything that she was was now back in her physical body.

Now, with complete control of her body, the godly maiden proceeded to, unintended, collapse over off the stone pedestal and onto the ground; face down and buttock up in the air. The goddess was very unfamiliar with her body, for it has been far to long since she had been inside of it. Her eyes fluttered open and her pupils dilated for a few seconds, before centering themselves. The maiden looked around with groggy eyes, inspecting her surroundings, then focused on the floating sprite before her.

"Ah, such divine light, such beauty and grace. The only one capable of such a spectacle is none other than our mother and origin of all that is, Amaterasu." Sakuya cried.

Slowly, ever so slowly, Amaterasu; the divine maiden, heaved herself up off the ground and began to dust herself off. She pivoted her head back and forth, curious to her surroundings, as Sakuya continued to praise her.

"How delightful to see that the savior whose brave sacrifice sealed away the _evil demon_ away so many years ago has not changed one bit." She praised.

"Seeing you emerge after so many years spent as a statue brings happiness to my heart!" she continued; turning and spinning slightly to show it.

She made an audiable sniffle, but she didn't see what the goddess was doing now. To continue dusting herself off, she had quickly stripped off her kimono and started to dust it off, flapping it like someone does to dry a blanket, blowing on it, rubbing it, then finally putting it back on. That is when Sakuya turned back to face Amaterasu, who was just finishing by sliding her arms through the sleeves. There was a brief pause, the two looked at each other, the maiden cocking her head curiously at the sprite even.

"Amaterasu..." the sprite murmured after the pause, "gaze above you and take in the condition of the sky."

Motioning skyward, she showed the divine maiden the sky. It was blood red, it had small house sized boulders swirling around like angry bees, raging winds that went at the speeds of lightning. Not only that, but in another left and right look about, Amaterasu saw a clear picture of giant waves-the size of large temples-crashing with violent tenacity into the earth; flooding the lands. Truly, this is a devastating state... thought the maiden.

"Since your untimely departure from our midst, the world has succumbed to devious and vicious beasts. They have ravaged our fine and bountiful country of Nippon... but, never have the circumstances been worse than they are at this very moment." Explained Sakuya.

"Please, use your powers to banish the darkness and punish those who would do us harm." She begged

Yet another, another brief pause of inactivity and silence. Amaterasu simply continued to stare blankly out at the horizon-almost in pity-at the current state of the children in the world she had created so long ago. Then, breaking the pause, was a sound, a jiggle, a flash of movement that came from the extra large sized chest of Sakuya.

"Hm...?" She murmured, looking down at her chest; which jiggled yet again, "Eh? What is this, has something stolen its way into my robe?" She inquired aloud once again; inspecting her chest softly.

Slowly, it began to jiggle more and more, and as it began to jiggle more, she began to laugh from the ticklish motions. They continued, and her laughing continued, growing more intense with each passing second, until, finally, her laughing reached its climax. It was loud and fast, sounding almost like she was possessed by something that was making her laugh; it was partially creepy. Then, at the laughter's peak, an object shot out from between the crack of Sakuya's bosom.

As small as a grain of rice and glowing neon green, this object shot far up into the air then fell down like a feather onto the ground in a small arch with a few twists and turns in the air.

Giving a sigh, Sakuya took a moment to gather herself, "What on earth?" She mumbled.

Sakuya turned her head to and fro, searching for the cause of such a disturbance, only to find that same annoying little pest from so many times before. He was lying on the ground from the looks of it, it looked like he had face planted into the dirt.

"You again?" Sakuya inquired; aggravation in her voice.

The entity-hearing her voice-proceeded to partially roll over and then get back up to his feet, and right after, he began bouncing up and down; up a good distance in truth. Seeing this, however, caught the fair maiden in front of the tree's attention. She focused in on the little entity and followed each bounce it did with her eyes. She cocked her head at the little entity in curiosity and enticement; bringing a bit of the playful wolf inside of her out. It made her wolf ears perk up happily and snow white wolf tail-which had been wrapped around her stomach-droop down and start to wag in excitement.

"Ow, ow, ow, ow, ow!" he griped; voice sounding like it had been breathing hellium, "Are you nuts? Boy, for a little thing, you sure make a big fuss! I was just tryin' to make the conversation a bit more interesting, that's all." He continued.

"Were you napping in my clothes again, bug?" Sakuya questioned; annoyance clear as day in her voice and on her expression.

The "bug"s, as the tree sprite called him, bouncing started to lean left and right with each other bounce. It was a bit sickening to continuously follow its movements with their eyes.

"Bug? I told you a thousand times not to call me that! I'm a wandering artist, the name's Issun!" Exclaimed Issun, the wandering artist, "If you don't believe me, I'll show you just how great I am and it wont be long till your bowing before my great brush!" He proclaimed with much pride in his tone.

He then pulls out a mysterious thing of paper; wound up between two sticks, turns to Amaterasu, and chucks it at her. At first, he didn't even really notice her, nor her beauty, for he was caught up in the moment of showing his artist's pride. He simply knew that the tree sprite had been talking to someone in front of her and randomly threw the scroll at them. Looking at the drawing that Issun literally threw unto the maiden's face, she could see the careful and ginger strokes of a delicate brush. Each detail lovingly drew in with scrutinizing efficiency. Only the brush work of a true master artist could paint such a masterpiece.

"Well, whaddya think?" Questioned Issun, "Even cuter than the real thing, no?"

Taking the painting off of her face, Amaterasu tried to answer the little guy's question. However, before she could speak, the little guy began to bounce towards the beautiful maiden: bouncing onto the ribbon of her kimono, then to her left shoulder, then finally up onto her cute little nose. Once more high up and eye to eye with the divine maiden, Issun was able to get a much clearer picture of her inside his head. The maiden "Amaterasu"; as Sakuya called her, had beauty that far surpassed that of any mortal woman-even some of the other goddesses and sprites like Sakuya. He pondered for a second, then another, and another, as he chose his next words carefully. After all, he didn't want to off put this gorgeous woman.

"Something wrong cutie? You look kinda down in the dumps."

Putting more energy to ponder about the maiden-mainly her looks-Issun slowly grew a feeling of familiarity. A sort of deja'vu sort of feeling, almost as if he has seen this godly maiden somewhere before. He couldn't quite think of where he had seen the maiden before, but the more he pondered, the clearer it became to remember who and where he had seen the woman before.

"Actually, you look kinda familiar..." Issun mumbled, "I got it! You look just like that statue of Shiranui!"

In response to this; considering that the maiden had not eaten in a century, Amaterasu picked the little Issun up between her index finger and thumb, pulled him off of her nose and held him in front of her face, then ate him whole. Sakuya watched with surprise widened eyes as this happened, as the great goddess Amaterasu ate the little bouncing artist. The goddess moved the little thing around in her mouth, tasting it for any delectable flavor, but found none. In fact, the little artist tasted very awful, so much so in fact that: her ears flattened against her head, her tail curled inwards, and her face scrunched up, and then finally spat the artist out of her mouth.

The instant that the artist hit the ground his neon green color changed to an anger filled neon red as he began bouncing around wildly. He was furious and it showed in his voice.

"Whoa! Whaddya think you're doin'!? Are you crazy!? A handsome guy like me should never be covered in saliva and drool, no matter how cute and stacked the woman!" He scolded.

Amaterasu seemed a bit bored with the artist now, since she couldn't really eat him or do anything with him. **GRRR**, went the sound of her food-deprived tum-tum. She whined a bit and fell onto her buttock and held her stomach, food was all she could think about.

Seemingly outraged by this response-however unintentional it was-Issun stopped bouncing and gripped the handle of his sword, "You'll regret messin' with the great Issun!" He exclaimed; unsheathing his sword, "Don't make me use _my prized sword, Denkomaru_, against you!"

**GRROOUUUGG!** was the low and bellowing roar that stopped the scene that played out before the three entities, **GRRAAAUUUHH!**

"Wh-Wh-What's that growling sound?" Inquired a frightened Issun; who made his way back onto Amaterasu's nose, "Also, why is it so dark, anyway?"

"O, great god Amaterasu..." whispered the tree sprite; who had floral cherry blossoms swirling around her, "I have used all the power I have to protect _Kamiki Village_. The village lives on, their spirits lie encased in my fruit. Cut it free, and the village will be reborn..."

As she spoke, Sakuya slowly began to fade away into the swirling blossoms, going behind Issun and Amaterasu to and around the large tree that Sakuya resided. The cherry blossoms that spiraled up the mammoth sized tree, shedding the darkness from the dry and partially dead bark. The branches looked old and decayed with absolutely no leaves or cherry blossoms graced its touch. It looked like the once majestic tree was tragically withering away, a very slow and painful death for a plant, little by little... till there is nothing by basic components of life is left.

"I trust in you. I know that you will lead us down the right path... only your awesome power can restore life to the world." Explained Sakuya as her body slowly dissipated into cherry blossoms that rushed towards the tree and disappear into the tree.


	3. Introduction Chapter III

Amaterasu and Issun both gazed at the sad and withered tree; which was so huge that when in its prime it must have had the greatest grandiose and beauty. In the base there was a gaping hole that twinkled and sparkled with a divine white light that almost swirled in anticipation of being entered.

"The tree's returned to normal, huh? That Sakuya girl sure said some weird stuff, "the spirits of the villagers are being kept inside the fruit"..." Issun took a gander skyward and saw a peach the size of a large horse lively hanging off a dead and dreary branch, "That's the fruit. That girl said _if you cut it down, the village will be restored_. But, it's awfully high up there... if you don't use _some kind of special power_, there's no way you're gonna reach it..."

Issun stretched a bit and looked around the area before gazing back to Amaterasu, "This Darkness is getting to me, too. A lot sure can happen when you're taking a nap." he commented sleepily.

Without even thinking, the great Goddess took a running start through the glimmering divine light. The warmth of entering the light was like being enveloped in the hug of a mother, caressing Amaterasu and Issun in such a way that they felt to be back with their mother. But, this was not as true for Amaterasu as it was for Issun, after-all, her mother was corrupted by pure evil in the depths of Yomi, and she was born by the cleansing her father did after trying to save his beloved. Once passed through the divine light, Amaterasu and Issun were brought at the foot of a beautiful land. The ground was covered with healthy grass, there were things of red and yellow flowers and little shrubs and thing plants dotting the ground here and there, and the sky was as dark as night with bright stars twinkling radiant light over this floating land of the Heavens.

"Where are we?" inquired Issun; looking around the area they found themselves in, "It got awfully quiet all of a sudden. I don't remember any place like this in the village. Well, we better keep our eyes peeled, we should look around the place for anything that might help us, too." Commented Issun; who had moved from Amaterasu's nose to the top of her head.

The divine maiden - with crimson make-up painted in swirl-shaped circles on her shoulders, a crimson painted oval with two lines going up a centimeter from both ends of the oval on the front of her bangs, the same paint going around her eyes in a crescent shape, and two crimson lines going up in a sort of curly swirl from both sides of her chest - does just that. She wanders about aimlessly like a lost deer, until she found nothing interesting other than the bridge with two fire stands that had lit flames on top. She tilted her head curiously, slowly walking onto its wooden surface; close to the reddish orange railing.

Amaterasu reached out with her left hand and gently placed her hand's silky soft palm against the wood; rubbing it along the grain as she walked across the arching bridge. It felt nice, the fuzz and softness of the wood felt so good against her skin, like a smooth velvety cake. Caaaake... thought Amaterasu; thinking about food, delicious, delicious food. The divine maiden stepped off the bridge, went past the two fire stands, and surveyed the new spot. It was like the last piece of land, however this one had a large plateau with a bordering fence; made of the same wood as the bridge. It also had several pots with various cracks and chips near the left side edge.

"Look at all those pots just waitin' to be broken!" exclaimed Issun, "Say, if you bust'em open, there just might be something good inside! Go on, go up and punch them, or kick them, or use that huge disc on your back to bash them open!"

Issun's excitement was a bit contagious for the space-cadet-y goddess. She was pumped up a bit herself, and with grand enthusiasm, Amaterasu ran towards the closest pot and, with a flick of her arm the pot was shattered into a thousand tiny pieces. It was scary, no, frightening how much strength this petite woman carried in her muscles; even despite being such a grand goddess. The ground was even cracked, not just the completely shattered pot, it simply stunned Issun.

"Way to go, my unexpectedly strong friend!" he exclaimed, "You just do that anytime you see something you can break... that isn't people... or animals."

Amaterasu nodded with great happiness as she bent down to pick up the few pieces of yen that had been lying in the bottom of the pot; and managed to not be flattened. The woman then continues on to smash each other pot with with the same frightening strength that rendered the pottery to shards, if not particles; picking up each thing of yen inside. Getting a total of 190 Yen.

Now, with no more pots, and the only way being to the right around the plateau, the goddess ran around the plateau till she came to a spot where the fence bordering the plateau-like hill opened up for several sections. She stood in front of the exposed rock and gazed upward to the edge, accidentally looking up so far that she lost her balance and fell backwards onto her back.

"Geez! How ditz can you be?" asked Issun, before looking up to the plateau-hill, "Whoa, whoa, hold on there, sweet-cheeks! Get a load of that!"

Amaterasu gander-ed up to the spot Issun spoke of, noticing a decent sized chest. It had whitish outlining on the edges of the chest, with a T-shaped cross in the front, sides, and back of the chest. In the middle was the symbol of the sun with swirls and a floral pattern on the bottom of the chest. Any part that wasn't those listed was a inky black. What was strange about the chest however, looked unlocked.

"That chest up there looks mighty tempting. Let's go check it out. Getting up that high outta be a piece of cake for someone like you, go on, jump up there. I'll make sure I'm gripped onto your hair when you do." Issun whistled.

Amaterasu didn't respond, but she did agree; even if she did not show it. She got up off the ground, dusted herself off and sauntered to a distance of five feet away from the rocky surface. Spinning around a 180 and taking off with a lunging start, the great goddess sprung up five feet off the ground and connected palms and bare sock/stocking covered feet with the rocky wall. It was like a spider how the maiden stuck to the wall for the brief moment it happened, then again springing up like a nimble cat over the edge - landing on hands and feet like a wolf.

"I knew ya could do it! You know, they say "Good luck is found in high places". So, keep your eyes peeled. We don't want to miss any treasure!" Issun exclaimed, bouncing up and down on her head.

Truly Issun's excitement was as contagious as the plague, the great and spacey goddess jumped in agreement towards the chest; slamming her fist into the middle icon that resembled the sun. The chest vibrated violently and trembled from the shock wave of brute strength sent from her punch, then literally blew off its top with a large puff of smoke and dust; shooting out along with it a thing of sake. There was a type of prayer ribbon wrapped across the neck of the sake bottle; shaped like two glass floats stuck together. It was a type of flash; made of a type of opaque glass, was one that very often was used as a sort of present offered at ceremonies to the gods in the old days. Amaterasu extended her hand and caught it before hitting the ground, sneaking it up her sleeve and hiding it away. Saving it for later no doubt; afterwards quickly smashing the pottery that laid next to it and the ones she spotted earlier. Achieving a total of 290 Yen.

It was then that the great Goddess came to a bridge - like the last one in design and detail, but broken in the middle section. Amaterasu tilted her head in confusion, pondering ideas that could aid her and her enthusiastic and infectious bouncing friend over the gap.

"Looks like the bridge is out. This shouldn't be too hard, um... _Amaterasu_, was it? That's kinda long. Mind if I call ya "Ammy"?" Questioned Issun; which was answered with an enthusiastic nod of the head by "Ammy", "Listen, Ammy... Ever head of the _spirits of the brush_? Good brushwork has its own soul, 'least that's what they say. Just watch, it'd take all day to explain... a picture's worth a thousand words, right?"

Issun then proceeded to leap from the top of Mount Ammy's Head, all the way to the grassy ground. It was then when he took out a thing of paper, a small brush of sorts, and began painting the bridge; only drawing crude looking blot-ty strokes in the part where it was broken off. Once the image was finished, the bridge before the two had strokes like the ones Issun painted materialized unto it, then disappeared in a trickling, sliding off ink sort of way; revealing the newly repaired bridge section. Then, with that done, Issun bounced his way back up to Ammy's head.

The look on Ammy's face; one that showed childish mien of excitement, practically asked "How'd you do that?!". Too which Issun replied; with a smirk, "Just a little technique I call _Rejuvenation_. It's one of many brush techniques that use divine power. It's a_brush god_ power that can _restore broken or missing things_. I've practiced really hard just to master this one technique, but there's thirteen! Each one is a power of one of the _thirteen brush gods_. Originally, all thirteen were a single powerful deity. When the deity died, its power was split up into thirteen different gods. Now the thirteen gods dwell within objects all around us, but... god or no god, how could anyone have the power to master all thirteen!?"

The maiden made a look of confusion; if not boredom, to Issun's explanation - it was like she had amnesia to her own identity. Then, without another word, the duo proceeded over the bridge and down the path that led to the next area needed to go; collecting and smashing any pottery she found along the way - achieving a total of 440 yen. Soon after, they came up to a large stone pillar; carved like a ceremonial prayer stone with a stone fence around it, that had the words, "River of the Heavens" scrawled down its face. It stood not to far away from a pathetic puddle of stardust; barely what you could call a river.

""River of the Heavens"? They mean the fabled stardust river? But, I sure don't see anything like that around here. It couldn't be that little puddle over there, could it?" Issun inquired to no one in particular.

Without a word in response, without even so much as a look or gesture, Amaterasu slowly spun her head in the direction of a very tall arch; made of the same wood as the bridges and fences of this place. It had this sort of alluring and mysterious feeling about it, as if something she had lost laid past it and up the hill it acted as the gate for. Sluggishly she turned her body perpendicular to the direction her eyes were gazing, then continuing on by gracefully sauntering on wards and upwards the hill-ish incline. She came to a sort of watcher's point, a rounded off edge that dropped away to nothingness with a railing of wooden fences on both sides of the point, some pottery; which were immediately broken and stolen of their yen gaining Ammy a total of 500 yen, and another wooden fire stand. It was great for stargazing... but, there weren't many; if any, stars in the blackened sky for some odd reason.

"Wow! Look at the stars twinkle!" commented Issun; at the few bright stars there were, "I haven't seen a beautiful and clear nighttime sky like this in ages."

It took a while, but after some time there was a distinct pattern of stars that almost made up a constellation, however it seemed to be missing a single star... how odd.

"Hey, look! Are those stars forming a pattern, or is it just me? Hm... seems like one is missing though." Issun questioned.

Ammy gazed out to the heavens along with Issun. Truly it was a nighttime sky that would have any mortal man and/or woman feel blessed; even more so if there were more stars in the sky. The pattern that Ammy saw before her sort of twinkled in her eyes, grabbing her attention especially. It was so pretty, so shiny, so... familiar. I wish I had some ink, then I could finish the pattern... must be so sad to be unfinished, Amaterasu thought.

"I know! I'll just paint the last star into a picture, that way it wont be incomplete in some form." Exclaimed Issun.

Issun went on to do what he did before; bouncing off her head and whipping out his brush paper and ink, but as he began to draw with the ink, he felt a large thud; like a mini earth-quake, right next to him. Before he could look up at the source of such a commotion, said source proceeded to lean over Issun and his painting; which was far from complete, and began to smear a few of her right hand's fingers into the wet ink; dripping it and smudging it all over the paper and grass.

"What the heck Ammy!?" Exclaimed Issun.

Not a word came from her mouth as she rose back to her feet and gazed back up heavenward. Amaterasu rose her ink covered fingers to the spot where there was the absent star, her eyes began to glow a paper-white and the ink dripping off her fingers had a sort of divine, darker glow to them. Then, just like that, she began to draw onto the very sky as if it were paper and her fingers were the brushes; drawing a single dot on the spot with the missing star, then the Japanese symbol for star. Finally, with a simple flick of her wrist - sending ink droplets scattering behind her - Ammy shot the symbol and dot forward and created a bright shining star to complete the constellation.

A light, as bright and divine as the very sun itself, radiated from the now-complete constellation. It was like the dragon shaped constellation had its light switch flipped on and the bulb had been replaced with an infrared bulb, industrial style. Out forth from the completed constellation spewed a dragon that had to at least be twenty feet from tail to snout that plummeted; like a missile, directly into Ammy and Issun. The dragon wrapped around them like a constrictor as a loud and manly roar came from behind the dragon that was trying to constrict them both; a familiar voice to the goddess's ears. Then, in the blink of an eye, the dragon was gone and in his place, sitting in a humble position, just a few feet before Amaterasu.

The land had changed, it now looked to be that of the celestial plain itself. The entire ground was gone, dissolve into an almost golden liquid with faint white mist clouds here and there. Nearby there was a large boulder a full floor taller than the tallest tower towered above everything proudly, but something that made it dwarf in comparison were mountains the size of titans, looming above everything in existence, looking down from their high perch to those below. Not only that, but even farther off than the mountains were what could only be described as sketches. They looked like faded and sometimes incomplete drawings of buildings, towers, bridges, etc. A feeling of divinity and peaceful bliss resonated from this place.

Mulling the man sitting before her, the great and divine maiden managed to remember her old friend; son more like, from his appearance. He dressed and just looked like a scholar, build and body of a thin and weak individual with a large forehead and pasty white skin; with brownish eyes that had a crimson outlining and a crimson circle with a line going down to his nose on his forehead. His hair was as white as snow and very long; going down to his shoulders even with the pulled back bun of sort on the top. There were even a bang that went down to his pecs on each side of his head. Also protruding out from his noggin was a pair of white and crimson red "horns" of sorts; like that of a dragon.

Around his neck was a necklace made out of shining and milk-white prayer beads that draped over his shoulders. It was lose, it clearly was much larger than his neck and it would never fit snugly. His kimono; while like Amaterasu's Kimono in the white and crimson color scheme, but it was a bit more unique in certain ways. In the design itself was much like a scholar's outfit; if it were a kimono, except the sleeves were made out of paper - over sized like Amaterasu's - and had not only Japanese symbols on it, but also illustrations all over it. Sashes made out of the same kind of paper; with the same type of ink across it, were around his shoulders in a vertical manner were also apart of the garments. To top it all off, the man even had a pair of glasses; made of tightly packed together paper.

"Ah... why, if it isn't mother Amaterasu. I apologize for not contacting you sooner during these long years. Having never forgot you, I, _Yomigami_, god of restoration, have eagerly awaited this day when we could again meet. While you were away, the _thirteen spirits of the brush_ that you once possessed, even myself, have been scattered across this land of men, and now lie in disarray. I turned myself into my celestial Zodiac form and transformed myself into a constellation and have survived up till now. The time has come for you to reunite all thirteen brush techniques. Your power is what is needed to restore the dried riverbed of the heavens and renew the flow of stardust..."he explained.

Yomigami slowly approached his "mother" and, with a look of happiness welled up in his eyes, he pulled her into a warm hug. It was one that seemed a bit childish, simply wanting to feel a mother's embrace one more time.

"I missed you..." Yomigami muttered.

The great goddess wrapped her sleeve covered arms around Yomigami; who towered above her, and patted his back softly. It was in such a way that it would make a child calm, the kind to soothe a child after having a bad nightmare. I missed you too, she silently spoke to her "child". Then, in a dazzling blaze of divine light; of various nature-esc colors of white and purple and pink, the body of Yomigami dissipated into a floating glowing orb of raw energy; glowing of purple pink and white, in between Amaterasu's arms. She gazed upon the orb as it slowly began to meld with her very soul, and as it did, she could feel the power of the brush coming back to her; however insignificant one technique was. The power of ink and creation came back, the three opaque little vials; in the shape of a 3D, bubble infinity symbol, that had been once empty were now filled with black as night ink.

Not only that, but a ray of ink began to draw itself all over Amaterasu's body, her kimono slowly undoing itself as her sunshine shining body was exposed; the light blinding the eyes of all. The only thing visible was the dark swirly lines that began drawing themselves all over Amaterasu's scarred body. The scars were few, but the graveness and depth of each wound was enough to kill the largest of men - these wounds were one of few trophies she held of _Orochi _and she's duel. The dark lines swiftly turned a crimson red as her kimono slowly dawned itself back on; the ribbon tying back around the kimono in the exact position as before.

Then, as if it was but all a dream, the entire heavenly image faded away into the previous star-gazing point that Issun and Ammy stood on before. Only, the two people that had come back were not the same, at least one of them was not. Amaterasu had remembered, recollected and recalled everything, everything from the past 100 years. Every petal that fell from a tree, every flower that's blossomed, each conception of animal and human alike, each death; of plant, human, and animal alike, every last detail to the falling seed and forming dew drop. Everything that she knew was what the world and the god's have watched, and she remembered it all, not only that, but nearly everything that will happen within a certain limit of time. A combination of omniscient and omnipotent. She took the fragile silence as a moment to take in the fresh air, pristine and crisp with the subtle scent of both cherry blossoms and morning dew. Then, a soft and cute sigh passed through her lips; along with it a fresh wind that went out in a swirling pattern. Even her breathe alone held the unrivaled power of pure creation.

"Wow!" Shouted Issun, braking the calm silence, "That was _Yomigami_, the god of Rejuvenation! Wait... so you have the power of Rejuvenation now?!"

He inquired her without hesitation, adding a jump, skip and a hop down to her nose to boot. Amaterasu gave a soft and beautiful giggle of amusement to her little bouncing companions childish tone. It was quite adorable; and so too was her soft and eloquent voice. The maiden amused the little artist with a brisk nod - however slow it was to keep him from tumbling off her dainty nose.

"Can you really use it to _restore the River of the Heavens_?" She gave yet another nod to his inquiry, "Then that means you were as good with a brush as yours truly!"

There was the briefest of pause between Issuns words, "Nah... it couldn't be true. Who else could master this incredible god technique?!" He finished off; going silent and bouncing back up to the top of her head, satisfied and reassured with his confident - but false - statement of superiority.

The goddess would humor the little sprite, for the time being. However, that doesn't mean she wasn't entitled to a little chuckle - soft and gentle with the tone of a voluptuous maiden - to his snappy and cocky remarks. She spun around; sleeves and kimono swinging with her, and took a trekking hike down the incline, but not before taking one last thankful glance to the wisest of her divine children, _Yomigami_. Her walk now had a more mature and feminized swaying of the hips; subtly to add a sense of sexuality to her walk. The kimono and her hair moved along with her subtle swaying, but at a moment's delay each sway.

As they drew closer and closer to the _River of the Heavens_, Issun began to mull over the recent events in his head a few repetitions, going as far as vocalizing his thoughts.

"Wonder if drawing some stardust will get the river flowing again...? Nah... it's one thing to fix a bridge, but fixing a starry river? There's no way you could pull off a stunt like that!" Who Issun was referring to when he said "you" appeared to be no one in particular.

Ammy approached the river-to-be and looked at it with a caring and motherly mien rolled over her face. She crouched down and draped both arms and sleeves onto her knees, cocking her head with a lovely smile creasing her longing lips; full and bubblegum pink. She mouthed the words, I'll restore you my child, as she pulled her hands and arms back; slowly hovering them above the opened nozzle of the first ink bottle. Her fingers waved and twirled and danced around the open bottle as the ink slowly slithered up the neck and out the mouth; acting like a garden snake, then forming ten various finger-sized blobs floating just below her finger tips. Amaterasu made a swift flick of both wrists as she speared each finger into the appropriate sized blobs. It was perfect, now each of her ten slender, lengthy fingers was dripping with fresh, black ink.

Closing her eyes; and keeping them shut, for a few seconds the goddess gathered up her power and, with an impossible flash of movement, her eyes jolted ajar and were glowing orbs of orangish red and yellow all mixed together; resembling the sun. These pearly orbs stopped the very essence of time itself and drained the entire world of its color, reducing everything to a sort of black and white painting drawn onto a slightly aged scroll. Everything was still, nothing moved, not even the flow of time. In mid bounce, about to the height of where the divine maiden's head would be when standing, that is where Issun was and would stay. He was quiet, and the enthusiasm he usually radiated was nowhere to be found in this time and space detached realm. This was what creation saw, this is what it felt like.

It had no... no perception of time, nor was it confined to the petty rules and limitations of space. It transcended above that, it transcended to a plain of existence few have starred into and came back sane. It was only the mortal artists that could easily stare into the fathomless depths of pure creation without having their sanity chipped away with each passing second. However, it was but the omnipotent _gods and goddesses of the brush_ that could traverse such a realm without any negative consequences.

With pulsations of her outlines; a slight lag that carried over with each pulse, Amaterasu slowly stood straight. As she moved and as the outline lagged behind, it created this odd animation that looked like a bad and choppy old time-y movie that kept slipping up and repeating the same scene in a redundantly prolonged duration. Continuing with graceful, fluid movement, the great goddess raised her left hand and reached out; touching the very fabric of creation, and smeared the ink onto the place the river would be. She made a single stroke down, followed by moving over and doing the same thing twice, thrice more times, until it was virtually a vast lake of ink. Then, using her still ink dripping fingered right hand, she sluggishly drew in the character for her son, _Yomigami_.

Then, with one word, she spoke the symbol of her son and with a vibration that made the timeless world quake from the raw energy of creation that gushed out of her voice. With the word spoken, then a sharp snap of the hand that drew the symbol, and the realm of creation was disbanded; letting the flow of time and the rules of space to take back their places. Everything began moving again, the softly swaying branches, the ginger blowing breeze, and the bouncing Issun; who tripped on himself when he came in contact with a hard headed Ammy that was not in the same place as she was when he bounced up. The ink that should have trickled away lingered, for a moment longer, before it began vibrating and trembling with power, then in a sudden and brisk blast the ink exploded in a dazzling bullet storm going in all directions; like the rippling effect of water rolling in waves.

Before Issun and Amaterasu laid a lake of vastness that held pure stardust as its waters. They sloshed back and forth by the kind breeze and twinkled each second the light of the nearby fire stands glinted on the surface. Issun - once on both feet - looked out down the shimmering lake and gawked at its majesty. Never before has he seen a near lake of stars and stardust all together; or just in the same general area, it was a sight that few must ever see in their lifetime, if it all.

"Whoa! The River of Stardust!" Issun proclaimed, "So this really is the River of the Heavens... but I want to know who the heck drew the darn thing..." he added in under his breathe.

The maiden made an innocent look as she gazed off towards the starry black horizon. She had a soft smirk curled up her lips as she continued amusing the little artist's ego. Before long Ammy trudged up to the starry, night blue waters. They sloshed and slapped the grassy shore with an organic slapping-splashing sound; every so often a bit of stardust washed up ashore and dissolved in a twinkling ball of beauty. Sticking out her right leg first the divine beauty leisurely dunk her foot and leg into the river; a shiver running up her spine at the temperature. But, she persevered and dunk her next leg in with her kimono; kicking off the shore further into the lake.

"Wah, careful, I don't want to get wet!" Issun proclaimed; going back and forth to avoid the waves on Ammy's head.

Ammy brought both her hands near her chest and bent her legs inwardly, then she pushed outwards as she slogged forward through the thick stardust. She rinsed and repeated this motion for many repetitions until she felt the tips of her middle, ring, and pointer fingers tap onto the dirt and grass of the next landmass. It was like the other islands, it had a reddish wooden fence acting as a border with a mountain near the back, even had a wooden archway that was glowing with a light that the hole in the tree did. With both hands she stretched out and grabbed two fistfuls of grass and hoisted herself onto the land. Once on the land, Ammy began drying herself off by shaking like a dog that just came out of water. When she did a shower of sparkling stardust that was dissolving into nothing. Then, she began exploring the new island; braking any of the pottery she found to keep hummering the artist. [TOTAL YEN: 694]

Then she proceeded through the arch; being enveloped by the warmth from before. However, when she passed through it this second time, she realized what the warmth was. It was her power, an aspect of it anyway, some of her power was being used to keep a seal, a barrier around this place, and that's why it felt so motherly. She hadn't even realized it either.

Once on the other side, the maiden saw a new plain open up before her very eyes. In a way, it resembled the last one: with the grass, plants, dark night, dark abyss below it all, and flowers, but this land had something more. It was much larger, in the fact that there were large mountains acting as walls, hills, stair-casing in certain areas, a cobblestone path, large rocks here and there, and ancient trees. Not only that, but after a bit of walking down the path, the goddess spotted the end of a navy blue rushing river that came to a carved out fork that lead to a waterfall and the way she just came; traversal via bridge. While she walked she spent some time to find and smash any of the pottery she found, for it seemed like Issun really liked it when Ammy did that. [TOTAL YEN: 930]

Soon the walking paid off, as they approached the end of the trail - the entrance to a large cave, guarded by a pulled-up wooden stockade gate. This cave gave an odd, but pleasant familiar vibe to the divine maiden, one that she had not sensed in a long century. It was one of honor and noble intentions; that and a golden heart. One step, twice more, thrice. _SHRROO-PWFT!_ went the sound of the stockade fence sliding shut. Amaterasu didn't pay it no mind, as her attention was caught by something much more marvelous, a stone statue, covered head to toe in vines and moss. It was a statue - at least a hundred foot tall - of an armored Nagi striking a pose with his sword pointing heavenwards. Except the most vital part was missing... the sword blade itself. Before going any further, she broke the pottery found in the cave and managed to get a new total of 1050 yen.

As the beautiful maiden approached the edge of the cave second floor platform, Issun murmured "Is this... is this the legendary shrine? We must be in the _Cave of Nagi_! The _legendary hero Nagi_ is enshrined here! He vanquished evil 100 years ago with the help of the white wolf, Shiranui!" as he gawked at the statue's glory.

"First the River of the Heavens and now this place... where the heck are we?!" He shouted.

"Boy, this place sure is a wreck. See? That sword's in real bad shape. The gods sure didn't do a lot to protect this place..." Issun stated, now mulling the entire place over.

The great goddess gazed toward the statue and bore a stare that could see through stone at the missing sword section. Her eyes began to glow like suns once more and in the blink of an eye a streak of ink went down the length of what the sword should be and - like the river - the ink exploded in beautiful, stunning glory as it revealed the now restored sword. With the fixing, the true beauty that the statue of the great and best friend Nagi had to offer. Amaterasu even bowed in respect to the statue, showing respect to her old friend.


	4. Arch I Wraith of the Spider, ChI Kamiki

"That really WAS your brushwork all this time! How'd you get so good? Exactly how ARE you, anyway?" Issun inquired.

Then, just above the statue's heavenward jutting sword, a bright and divine twinkling came from the black sky. A constellation, another series of stars aligning in such a way that they could only have been used to hide a divine entity.

Issun; being the first to notice it, pointed it out to Ammy, "Hey, there's another constellation! This one kind of looks like a..." He said, trailing off at the end.

There was yet another instance presenting itself where a constellation is missing one of its stars. It was sad, seeing such potential being wasted because of a simple missing detail; just like a broken statue or incomplete artwork. So, like the last time, Amaterasu took a single blotch of ink from her half full and refilling ink vial and placed a single dot in the spot of the missing star. Also like last time a bright and shining star formed from the ink blot and again like last time, an animal of the Zodiac came forth from the constellation; the land slowly melting away into the heavenly plains it once was not to long ago.

This time however, the animal was a rat, a very small and adorable rodent that stood atop the handle of a sword double, if not triple the size of Amaterasu. It had a very slim handle, slim enough for a child's hand to grasp, but it connected to the blade; which was the thing triple or double the size of Amaterasu. It was a grayish iron-silver color and had a wondrous shine to it. The blade twirled and twirled as it plummeted to the ground, slicing the air as the rat slowly turned into a little child, then it slammed and plunged into the ground at a diagonal angle.

The child was about three feet and two inches tall; as he stood on the hilt of the sword, with the body and frame of a child - even though he was much older than any child in existence. His skin was a flawless white, like Ammy's, that had this look of being baby soft. His short hair; pulled back into a small rat tail, was a silvery color, a bit like tempered iron or steel. His eyes were sharp, razor-ly so in fact, and had piercing silver irises; just like refined iron. However, the most notable feature on his face was the pair of three long scars going outwards from both sides of his small nose to his cheeks - it resembled the whiskers of a rat. It wasn't grotesque however, it in fact made him appear even cuter. Then there was crimson make-up on his face that went around his eyes, made a little dot on the tip of his nose, a trio-force of swirls on his forehead, and a single whirl-pool shaped swirl on both his cheeks.

He wore a kimono, which, for the most part, was like Amaterasu's kimono, only a bit more of a samurai, shogun mixture meant for a child. This kimono had a color palette of silver, grayish iron, and crimson - the entire thing having a silver background with grayish iron highlights - it even had plates of iron armor here and there. The kimono was practically two pieces sewn together with plates of metal stitched into the fabric, with the illustration of an unsheathed sword going down the length of the frontal seam's stitches. Each sleeve comes down to his wrist and the bottom comes down to his mid-calves. The armor sections of a samurai's leggings, breast-plate, and arms; including the gauntlets, were stitched into the correct sections of the kimono. Then, to finish it all off, the crimson markings that the maiden's kimono had were almost perfectly mimed onto the child's kimono/armor; for both the fabric and metal plates.

A large and bright smile was plastered to the child's face. He was simply beaming at the fact the great Amaterasu was here, so much so in fact, that he did something rather childish. He curled both his hands into fists and going from left to right he hit the gauntlet covered hand on each respective breast section - shouting out "Oi!" with each one. Then, in a flash of movement:  
he leaned down, grabbed the pommel of the blade, jumped up with the blade, spun two times, then landed down in a vertical standing position. However, it was his blade that stood; as it made a thunderous cracking sound as it was lodged back into the ground, while he kept himself up right off the handle. It was like a trapezes trick, he simply using his hands to keep from going any further downwards.

"Well, well, well... if it isn't mother Amaterasu." He said in a childish but arrogant tone; showing enough humility to let her know he respected her.

Ammy didn't care to be honest, she couldn't get over how cute this child of hers was. She just wanted to hug him and squeeze him and never let go.

"It's been a long time, but with all these monsters around, the only place I could hide was in this shrine dedicated to ancient heroes. If there is anything I can do to assist you in your endeavors, I am at your service. Make good use of this sword, as it was designed to conquer evil." He finished off gesturing to his sword.

It was of master craftsmen ship, but it wasn't something to show an excessive amount of pride for if he had not the skill to back it up with. Skills, however, was indeed what he had in spades. But, no matter how skilled he was, in the eyes of his "mother" he was a little child that should be cuddled and hugged and nuzzled and loved. In fact, he could see that look in her eyes, the one that almost foretold of a coming snuggle attack. Of which he did not enjoy, yet at the same time did. He despised being treated like a child just because of his facial exterior and short demeanor, but that was something he could not help. However, being treated like that by his "mother" was in on itself satisfying for the fact that he got a bit more time than the other zodiac did with her.

Tachigami gave a sigh as he let go of the sword pommel and dropped to the ground with a huff. He slowly shuffled to the side of the sword and stretched out his arms in a hugging position.

"Alright... I'm ready..." he grumbled.

In direct colorization with his grumbles, the maiden shot from the place she stood, scooped the little one in her arms, and began to hug him like a mother would. She made little sounds as she squeezed the life out of the boy, not entirely minding her strength. It got so bad that during the hug, Tachigami's back caved in and he fell limp; more of an unconscious expression on his face than a deceased one. While unconscious, his body began to sparkle and shine like Yomigami's did before. Then, his body melded into the same thing Yomigami's did; a sparkling ball of various colored lights with his symbol in the middle of the sphere. The sphere quickly merged with Ammy's body and the little boy's form appeared next to Yomigami's behind Amaterasu - sword drawn, held against his shoulder, and he sitting on the writing scholar's shoulders, two out of the thirteen were found and accounted for. It was cute, seeing how the little boy had his hand on the scholar's head, peering down at the scroll he was inscribing on. They both had a happy expression on their faces.

Then, that world melded away back into the _Cave of Nagi_, and with it came Issun's voice.

"Hey, that was the god, _Tachigami_, master of the _power slash_ brush technique... weird, I was told of him being taller." Commented the bug.

That is when it dawned on him, "Wait a minute. If you are getting all these powers... then you're just like the _Shiranui! _You know, the maiden that fought and died alongside the great Nagi? When Shiranui died, the maiden's power was split into the 13 brush gods. This is crazy, Shiranui and Nagi? It's just like the legend!" He ranted, "Well... anyway, I've never seen this _Power Slash _technique myself. How 'bout showing your stuff on that boulder over there...? I wont believe that you can do it unless you slice it in half!"

Ammy gazed over to the boulder in question, she detested the idea of needlessly destroying a part of nature, but if it was to make one of her children happy, she'd do it. With a huff she took yet another single blot of ink and dipped her pointer finger into the floating blob, then raised her arm and began to draw a single line horizontally across the rough egg-shaped boulder. She had her eyes closed while doing so, she had to focus and concentrate on remembering each stroke and emotion that must be felt when creating in the realm of creations. With one last stroke, the symbol for _Tachigami_ was complete and a flick of the wrist was all it took to materialization of the technique.

It was like _Tachigami _himself came down from the heavens and, with one quick swipe, cut the boulder clean in two. Then, for good measure, it was as if the god did a flip and hit the top half off the bottom with the back of the blade. It slid down and crashed into the ground at one end, then toppled over backwards with a loud _THUNK!_ and a mammoth sized cloud of dust.

"Wow! I... I didn't think you had it in you sweet-cheeks! I'm not even in the same league as you! Guess I overestimated myself... Hey, sweet-cheeks - er, I mean... Amaterasu... I've made up my mind! If you are _Shiranui_ reborn, then that means you can master all 13 techniques, right?"

She responded with a nod of confirmation and a look of interest, "Great, cause in that case, I think I'll tag along until I'm as good as you! Lucky you!"

She growled softly and tried to shake him off. There is no way, I could never put one of my children in such danger... she thought. But it was to no avail, for when she began shaking her head, Issun simply hunkered down into her hair and grabbed on with a vise-like grip till she stopped.

Then, with a chuckle, he stated: "It's no use tryin' to change my mind! There's no stopping me once I've made a decision! But enough about me, now that you've mastered the _Power Slash_, you can cut down _that thing_ Sakuya was talking about. Let's go back and give it a shot!"

With a huff the maiden began a trek back to the gated entrance and exit to the cave. There she drew a single black, inky line across the entirety of the gate. In the blink of an eye, it was cut in half, toppled over, and rolled down the incline of a hill. The woman took a step out and planted her foot onto the soft grass; somewhat on both the grass and stepping stone walkway. It felt nice on her bare, sock covered feet for something so soft after coming out of the rough floor of the cave. She took in a big breathe of fresh air and, with a pep in her step, began to run down the incline. The resulting momentum made Issun cling onto the strands of hair on Ammy's head for dear life.

The scent of the trees and the fresh grass floated on the slightly breezy air, carrying and floating along with the running Amaterasu. Soon she passed the second wooden arch, when a feeling came. The feeling of being watched, watched by evil and boring eyes. The eyes of evil entities, the feeling made the goddess stop in her tracks and grow on edge. This feeling was alien, yet familiar, one that she knew, but didn't know all at the same time. It was an uneasy feeling, one that Issun was late to pick up on, and when he did, the haunting sound of flutes had already began to carry on the wind. It was an evil tune, one of both melancholy and malevolence; tricking the ears with its wonderfully skilled playing.

Then, jumping down from the heavens itself, appeared three men. They were dressed in a kimono with a dark and grassy green color palette, pale skinned, wore white-wash paper masks with various symbols painted on them, and held wooden flutes in their hands. They surrounded Ammy in a triangle formation; with her in the center, as they took a deep breathe in unison, put their flutes up behind the mask to their lips, and began to play notes on the accursed flutes. They danced and twirled and skipped around Amaterasu, as if it were a game.

"What the?! Where'd they come from!?" Exclaimed Issun.

They kept dancing and fluting merrily, acting as if nothing was wrong. But this didn't ease the tension and suspicion of Amaterasu, it was, on the contrary, working to coil it up even further than that. She watched with agitated patience as the trio kept skipping around her in a triangular shape, it was when they stopped did she really get suspicious. While the two she could see kept playing like normal, it was the one she couldn't see that had stopped playing the flute. He had a mischievous and malicious smirk tugging at the corners of his wicked lips. He took in a very deep breathe, taking in his own dark, demonic energy as well, and put the flute to his mouth. He then blew as hard as he could and shot out a ball of demonic energy; purple and pulsating with indigo electric bolts, at Amaterasu.

_FWOOSH! _went the sound of the demonic energy whipping over the now bent over maiden. She had sensed the demon's treachery and malevolence before he even fired, and ducked out of the way. The ball of demonic energy shot onward and landed dead square into the trunk of a nearby tree. The spot where the ball hit turned a charred black, then a dead gray, killed by the demonic and evil energy. Slowly the woman bent back up, in an angry, but seductive pose; mostly by accident was this done. The maiden reached over her shoulder and grabbed onto the divine instrument on her back and flung it over onto the ground with a loud _CRAAAEK _as the ground develops a star-shaped crack going out from a rounded indentation. She held to the instrument - by a handle on the very bottom edge - like a mother held her child's hand and gave a look of a disappointed and scornful mother about to discipline her children at the demons.

She waited, watching the now openly hostile demons beat their balled up fists against their chests and began moving around and hopping around like angry monkeys. They held their flutes like swords, no longer like flutes, and wielded them like weapons instead of instruments. One got a bit closer to Amaterasu, then closer, and closer, till finally he got close enough to strike against the goddess. He raised his fist and lunged it forwards, landing a good blow on her forearm and bicep; as she blocked the attack expectantly. She then took a swipe at the demonic creature's body with the divine instrument; taking a good gash out on his gut. The blood that came from him went from scarlet red to a ray of flowers as the evil essence was purified, the monster screeched in pain as it took three large jumps backwards as he held his gut.

"Yeah! Show them dirty Imps who's boss Ammy!" Shouted Issun.

Upon the Imp's retreat, the other two lunged forwards. They took a series of swipes and jabs at the goddess; being blocked by both arm and instrument alike. Then in return to the assault, she lashed out with a kick to both of the Imp's stomachs, followed up with a large chop to the back of both imp's heads with the instruments; nearly crushing them like melons. The imps retracted weakly, limping meagerly away from their demise, but, they would not escape. The maiden's eyes closed, then opened and before her laid the realm of creation and all its canvas-like glory; only this time the forms that were the imps outlined where they would be in the material world. A blot of ink bubbled out from the ink pot and she dipped her index finger into it; coating the entirety with a sublime black coating.

Then in a single, strong stroke, Amaterasu drew a straight line and the symbol of her son, _Tachigami_ over the two limping Imps. Then, she blinked, leaving the realm of creation and emerging back in the world of materialization. The power of her son came to fruition and struck down the imps and cut them clean in half. A geyser of blood spewed from the two halves as they slowly parted, but each drop of blood turned into purified flowers that littered the ground; before the bodies themselves vaporizing into purified vegetative growth. From their bodies came their sin of greed turned to a more pure state; morphing it into various types of different monetary valued coins. Then to finish off the terrified remaining Imp, the maiden reeled her weapon wielding hand back and flung it like a Frisbee. It shot out like a bullet and ground against the abdomen of the last imp, pushing it back a few feet before finally passing through the Imp's torso; causing severe damage.

The Imp wailed out in agony as its entire body began to have these shafts of divine light pierce through here and there, then in a glorious explosion, the Imp's body bloomed into a patch of flowers. The flowers were of various color and height, but they did not remain for long; just like the last ones. The flowers were a bi-product of the Imp's impurity being cleansed, and so too where the coins that dropped from its absent carcass. With the fight over and demons purified, Amaterasu once again made her journey back to the tree of Sakuya. Along her way she encountered yet another trio of Imps, but this time when they tried to deceive her, she had none of it. She took the initiative and struck them down without mercy. In these two pointless, but unavoidable fights, she had accumulated a total of 2090 Yen; with the yen from before included.

It was with another passage through space did she step out from the tree's bowels. Amaterasu strode further from the tree, took a right, then converged below the giant, ripe peach dangling from the decayed branch. It was a bright pink with a bright, green stem and it simply shook with life and anticipation. However, there was something quite peculiar about the peach. On its face was a crimson line leading up to a whirlpool swirl in the middle of the overly sized peach. The goddess took her time to crane her head heavenwards to the peach, staring at it with expressionless eyes.

"That fruit sure is growing in a high place... good thing we got that _special power to cut it down_, right Ammy?" Questioned Issun.

She had a grin tug at her mouth at his comment, eyes blinking, ink blob forming, then another ink line drawn across the base of the stem of the fruit up above. When the stem was severed from the fruit and began to plummet to earth, the maiden took several steps back from the impact zone. It fell like a tremendous meteorite striking the ground with a ferocious fury, except it was it that split open with a large splash of fruity peach juiciness that cascaded along the dead ground. When the juice coated the hard and dead ground a dazzling flash of divine light perforated the darkness and destruction and went outwards with a wave of purifying, blooming flowers that receded the evil from the earth and replaced it with green and healthy vegetation; with the occasional animal. It brought the color back to the land in a blaze of various colored flowers, cherry blossoms, and fully grown trees that stood like mountains in height. The water calmed into a peaceful lull and the raging, whipping winds eased into a gentle zephyr and the rocks returned to being brown. Everything was right with itself it seemed.

However, there was something odd. The sky - while no longer a raging crimson inferno of death - was a pitch black. There was no ounce of blue, no trace of clouds, and not even a sliver of the sun to be found. 'twas like a sore thumb it was, simply not being there to brighten and lighten up the world now layered in pitch black darkness. Not only that, but this somber, gray, moody atmosphere simply resonated from the very environment which had been brought back to life not but a moment ago. Where is the sun... wondered the beautiful goddess.

* * *

Author's Note  
Hi there! Guys, I need to converse with you. Author to Reader, man to man, man to woman... horrible excuse for a writer to very tolerant and patient angels above. I kind of want to speak about two things. One: like last time i apologize and will cruxify myself for it being late later and Two: I got really lazy towards the end, so it ain't as good as I want it to be... but, I am too tired tonight, soooo... meeeeeeh, I'll double cruxify myself later.

Now then! SHATH I SPEAK OF MY FAVORITE CREATION?! LOLI TYPE 2: NAUGHTY TSUNUDERE BOY?! NO?! oh... okay... . I'll tell you anyway! I will be honest in admitting, I hand wrote a basic, rough outline for how I wanted him to look. I saw many deviantARTs of him being quite tall, and I was like, "But... he is the rat zodiac..." so I went for this loli type 2; the naughty type, Tsundere-esc personality wise young-looking boy, with certain "Rat" like qualities, and samurai/shogun-esc like clothing. I do so hope that is how you found him protrayed as, otherwise, I HAVE FAILED YOU AND I APOLOGIZE! I did forget something a bit however, the sheathe of his sword. It completely slipped my mind, but then I remember the size of the sword and I was like... yeah that be not happening realistically.


	5. Chapter I, Page II

"Wow! The village's been restored! Sakuya came through big time! She really was protecting the village!" Gleefully shouted the bouncing speck.

He spoke as if everything was fine and dandy, when on the contrary, it was not. Sure, the environment and the village had been brought back to whatever ethereal plain of darkness it had been swept into, but the color was absent. The sky was still a haunting shade of black and the entire world looked somber, it felt sorrowful. The grass was bland and merge into the same strange, somber green that the entire environment blended into; certain shades darker than others. The wind was dead, and their was this stale odor about it, one that polluted the nose with a horrendous stench that could barely be described by any word known to man. To the goddess's nose, at least, it felt like that. There was no scent of nature about it, just pure wind that could barely even be called that on its own. However, the heaviest weight on her heart was the fact that no sun was present to cut through the darkness that blackened the sky with such inky hatred.

"But I sure wish I coulda spent more time in her Kimono, if ya know what I mean!" Commented the bouncing bug; making Ammy frown rather quickly as he giggled lustfully. "But seriously, with all this monsters runnin' around and all...the village could still be in danger. Let's go see how they're all doing down there."

Amaterasu sighed hopelessly for the future of this one, who appeared interested only in the more sensual areas of the female body. She began her stride towards the white shrine gate; complete with odd white fire at the top corners, and began trotting down the pathway leading down to the village. Now back in the world of mortals, her godly powers were able to flourish once more, flowing throughout her body and out from each step she took. When her shoe-less foot made contact with the ground a puff of leaves sprung outwards, along with a few blades of healthy grass and an flower that had yet to bloom. However, when she took her foot off from that spot where foliage grew, it slowly decayed until nothing was left. This affect persisted no matter what ground she walked on, not even the hardened dirt formed into steps from a hillside she found herself trekking down. The trees; as large as the tallest mortal building, barely swayed in the dead wind-looking practically dead themselves. The grass appeared unhealthy and the rocks were a droll mirrored image of their previous selves. Not even the wall of rock that bordered the left most side of the walkway had any color, it was like the rest, one hazy green that marked the emptiness of creation.

When the goddess took a step off of the carved in steps, a foreign feeling surged through her body. It was the absence of creation, despite there being substance, being form present, there was no creation to give anything life. This feeling was only strengthened when Amaterasu and Issun spotted a strange, stone-gray man standing in front of some colorless benches with wagasa leaned over them. This man had a flute in hand and against mouth, he wore the clothing of a Buddhist monk and wore a straw basket on his head. His posture read that of an innocent and unsuspecting victim that had been struck by the curse that had only recently been dispelled.

"What in the world? I don't remember there a statue being here... Well, whatever. Let's just go." Naively said the bouncing artist.

But Amaterasu didn't share such blissful ignorance, no, she knew the truth. She looked at the "statue" with pity and reached out to touch the top of the wood woven basket that concealed the man's head. Her fingers stayed spread out, only her middle and index fingers sticking together as she ran her hand down the woven texture of the basket, feeling every twist and turn of each strand the basket was made from. She then uttered a silent prayer for the man's safety, then took her leave. She passed under the framework of a wooden bridge connected to the top of the large mountainous hill, then found her body trotting down a cobblestone walkway; made from large sized rocks, that was more of a slanted slide than a series of steps. On both sides there were trees, strange blackened trees with white rope tied into a bow around their trunks, grass, and bushes popping up from the colorless ground, while on the right side was a naturally raised dirt mound that marked the edge of this piece of land; the rock reaching down to meet a never-ending ocean.

The goddess passed under another wooden archway into the back of a small hamlet, a small village for quaint mortals. In total there were five houses, each being unique and different in their right. Nearest to the back was by the the oddest, for it was very orange themed, literally orange themed. In front of a wooden fence of the house were two stone lanterns moored to the ground with a Non La shaped top and an orange mounted onto the tip. The fence went around the house; encompassing a large boulder and a dead sacred tree. The house was made of simple wooden board with a queer attachment that held up a giant orange on the roof. The house next to it was more humble, in the fact it looked like a bungalow with a woven thatch cone shaped roof with a fence that corralled in a few stone domesticated animals and even had a large clover protruding out of the roof's front side; a turnip farm just twelve feet away from it. The next house was really one part of a duo, as it matched a water mill with a rice farm next to it; indicating it to be a brewery and a brewer's home.

All these things were lifeless, no color showed and the same statue-like entities were found scattered across the ground- one in the turnip farm, one near the turnip farm with a fly on a leash with a stone dog lying next to the child, and one in the rice patty farm. The saddened deity strolled up to one of the somber statues, doing what she did to the last one. Inside her heart deflated with sorrow, taking every ounce of will to keep tears from betraying her normally calm and collected face. The woman statue was a bit on the hefty side, wearing a larger sized outfit that most farmers wore with an odd bucket strapped to her head.

"Hey, there's a statue here, too... It's like the villagers have turned to stone or so-" a roar that mimicked the earth shattering one blasted the still air, "s-something..."

Issun's merry bouncing was stopped dead in his tracks upon hearing the roar. It was like a great and powerful man was shouting the most heinous insults into his minuscule ears as loud as he possibly could. This roar did nothing to deter the wondrously voluptuous maiden's facade, but the roar struck-in volumes-at her core, her very soul. This monstrous roar was quite familiar to the sexy goddess, trudging up awful memories that had thought to have been sealed far away in the recesses of the mind. Her fingers instinctively curled into righteous fists trembling with an ancient and forgotten grudge against the perpetrator of the roar. She would have just vengeance soon enough, all she had to do was bid her time till the moment reared its ugly head and bared its gruesome maw with its rows of sword-sized fangs.

Issun gathered all his courage to stand tall once more, to defy the roar despite how frightful he was, "Not again!?" he choked out. "That's not one of those smaller monsters that're lurking about. A roar like that's gotta belong to somethin' much bigger, come on, let's hurry up and find someone with a pulse around here!"

So they went off, a dynamic duo where one did all the trekking and the other made idle comments. With each statue they saw their hopes of finding one person living and breathing had more and more chipped away. After checking the last statue they had spotted before; the one harvesting rice, after searching each house; smashing the pots and taking the yen that hid inside them (2492 yen), Issun had gotten rather miffed. He was quite annoyed at the lack of people, other than himself and Amaterasu, and he felt like he needed to vocalized his thoughts.

"No good, this one's not movin' either!" He boomed angrily. "Everyone here was perfectly fine just a few hours ago-" he paused for a moment, "There's definitely something strange goin' on around here..."

This is when Issun took notice of the ink black sky; void of the happy go-lucky sun. He seemed rather shocked and quite distressed at this fact. He spoke again, his mannerisms shifting to a more timid and questioning tone.

"The village is back, but what's up with the black sky? M-maybe its dark outside the village too!" He cried in a frightened revelation. "Let's find some high ground to look!"

Ammy gave a brisk nod and started running for the one spot she knew could provide helpful elevation. As she ran the flowers, grass and leaves that came from her footsteps sped up, but continued mimicking the rest of the environment like a little brother or sister seeking the approval of his/her older sibling. She ran past the archways, dashed up the stone stairs, past the peaceful resting area that marked the fork in the road, and scurried up another flight of stone stairs. The goddess spent no time in the investigation of the top of the hill's plants; or lack there of. It would have saddened her even further if she paid mind to the dying trees, dying grass, water-less pond, everything that should have been but was not.

The ground's grassy, dirt texture faded away to the hardness that was wooden planks. Connected to the hilltop's ground; the thing that needed the massive overhand as supports, was a large wooden bridge leading out to a large circular platform with a rough sketch of the sun made from crimson paint. Amaterasu panned around the circle, looking anywhere and everywhere for signs of the blackness going on past Kamki; ending up in the middle of the sketch. As far as the maiden could make out in the blackness, it stretched on for what appeared like forever.

"This is bad..." Issun mumbled in despair. "The _sun_'s not even shining, it's as black as far as the eye can see and not a single villager can move a muscle... Is it some kind of curse? Did a monster do this...? It's not gonna stay like this forever, is it?!"

It, Issun, was quite panicked by the whole ordeal, "If only the _sun_ were out to light our way..." he sadly murmured.

With a knowing smirk a blob of ink gathered, formed and drew itself out from her three ink pots that resided on her hips. She dipped her right hand's fingers into the large, black blob and blinked listlessly. Once the lids parted once more, her eyes resonated with a light, a shine, two large orbs of pure white radiance that melted the entire world away and brought back the realm of creation. With graceful motions her hand raised up to the sky and drew a large, perfect circle dead center of the once blackened sky, then drew spokes on the circles outer rim, and then finally used the last bit of ink soaking her fingers to write the symbol of herself. "**アマテラス**"

The sun came to life, reappearing as if by magic. Its light and all its majesty flooded the ink black sky, forcing the light blue ocean to overflow the black background. It made the ink retreat, flee, fall back from the color as if it was its kryptonite. The color came back to the sky far before any ray of beautiful sunlight dazzled the droll leaves, bark, grass, etc. of the mortal realm. It was like a forest fire, spreading like wild fire to each tree, each scrap of bark, every single blade of grass as it washed away the vomit color that the environment had been so gleefully to share not but a moment ago. The color flooded the landscape like a rogue wave beating against the sandy shore, like a 3-D movie practically jumping off the screen to meet the watchers. Like a rolling wave it paved over the once bleak plant life and rocks with their original colors, it spewed forth the water from which lakes and ponds had been robbed of and it brought back: the deer, rabbits, boars, horses, lions, dogs, birds, bears, every single native fauna. All of it rolled back in with the rolling tsunami that was the sun's glorious light-all of it-and it was majestically beautiful.

"Wh-Wh-What the!?" Cried the baffled poncle.


	6. Chapter I, Page III

The green glowing poncle ceased his bouncing and pondered what had transpired before his very eyes. This maiden, Sakuya had called her "_Okami Amaterasu_" and Amaterasu was the name of a certain goddess.

"Hm... come to think of it, your name IS _Amaterasu..." _that's when it hit him, this maiden, this goddess was _the_ goddess. "That's the name of the _sun goddess_! So, it'd follow that you had the sunrise technique from the start, that would explain it... With it, you could even _turn night into day_... Wow! You're no run-of-the-mill god, that's for sure!"

With a nod of his head, he was satisfied with his brilliant deduction. "'_The flowering brush is like music from the heavens_', that's a line from one of my grandfather's poems. He felt a skilled artist was like a musician of shape and color. Since you're a great artist yourself, why don't we name your brushwork after that poem of his? It's called _Celestial Brush_.After all, your brush did bring out the sun! Well, Ammy... let's head back to the village! We gotta see if the villagers are back to normal now."

The great goddess gently nodded, agreeing with this child's reasoning. But before she could even turn around, there came a voice. This voice was old, quite old and very wise; the kind of wisdom only attained through the progression in age.

"Hm? Who are you!?" queried the voice.

Listlessly turning about, she faced the maker of the voice. What she saw was something both cute and silly. It was an old man, so old that his liver spots had liver spots and his wrinkles had wrinkles. His posture was slouched forward; so much so that it was downright diagonal, and made him use a sturdy wooden cane and his hand constantly placed in between his shoulder blades to keep himself from falling. On top of his bleach white head was a ripe looking orange that bounced on the skin that joyfully bounced upon his head. His hair-turned white-had migrated from his rather bulbous, bald head to his chin and nose into a majestic mustache beard combo; beard practically dragging across the ground he walked upon. This hair enveloped his mouth and made his rather large, orange-ish nose stand out from the rest of his face. Around his shriveled neck was a thing of rope tied in various directions and spots to form a rather divine looking knot-bow combo. He wore an old, faded baby blue robe and wooden sandles and faded socks that would befit a village elder.

The elder reached up and stroked the base of his fabulous beard, scrutinizing the odd, snow white haired and wolf eared maiden before him with squinted eyes. "A white haired and wolf eared maiden!? Not the one who fought that terrible creature with Nagi!?"

With squinted eyes that seethed with doubt, he brought his face even closer; stroking the base of his beard now. "You couldn't possibly be the legendary Shiranui!"

He made wide, exaggerated gestures and motions of dismissal with his one free hand while he spoke. "No, it can't be... that story is a hundred years old."

Amaterasu slowly bent her knees, lowering herself so she could be eye level with the ancient man. She placed one of her elbows on her legs and held her tilted head in the palm of her hand; eyes closed and mouth smiling at the silly old man. The goddess knew what the man saw when he gazed upon her and it made her quite disheartened to know that what they saw was what was seen of her all those years ago, a simple woman with white hair, strange wolf ears, and a simple white, pink, and crimson kimono. Her smile was a bitter-sweet one, both joyous and saddened.

"Still, you look a lot like that statue of Shiranui. On the other hand, you don't look quite as smart..."

On the wind came a simultaneous playing of three demonic flutes. Along with them came the retched stench of mischief and misfortune. The divine maiden's eyes opened without haste and in a flash she was standing on her feet, poised to strike. Not only that, but like a wolf, an audible growling resonated from the back of her throat. The man; taken aback, recoiled from the woman's sudden, aggressive response to his comment. His hands were moving up and down, going back and forth in a sort of air-punching motion; cane looking like a spear at which point. There was even a little bit of sweet trickling down his old, wrinkled scalp.

"Wh-wh-whoa! No need to get aggressive like that! I apologize for such a comment, I'm not one to mince words. I just state the facts!" he crowed fearfully.

What the ancient elder could not see was the shifting of atmosphere. The sky blackened as gray clouds and a dark, chilling wind rolled over the specific place. The sound of demonic flutes vibrated the evil air louder and faster, drawing the maiden's eyes to the top of the large hill's peak where three of the green imps stood. Just like their comrades before, they were rather frail looking, wore kimonos of various green shades, masks with dried blood characters on them, and flutes held up to their mouths behind the masks. Also like those that came before, they danced and pranced around in an attempt to seem less threatening; a futile attempt.

"Hm? What's this sudden chill down my spine?" he wondered aloud; quivering from the evil winds.

"Here they come, sweet-cheeks... These are the _monsters_ that've been plaguing these lands. They sneak into villages and cause all sorts of trouble! Step aside, sweet-cheeks-" he warns as he unsheathed his sword with a wide arching slash. "This is a job for my trusty sword, Denkomaru!"

Once realizing the failed attempt had, in fact, been for naught, they got into aggressive poses and proceeded to leap onto the wooden deck then lunge for the three.

The goddess wasted no time, pouncing on and grabbing the back of the elder's collar and used her momentum and godly strength to hoist the man off the ground and used him as a bat to smash each imp into each other and flying off into the platform's arch. In this flash of movement, he had lost his orange and, when brought back around from the spinning smash, had it gingerly placed back onto his baldness; before even touching the ground. The ancient geezer was limp; each limb hanging like a ton of bricks, in the woman's grasp. Because of such limpness, when she threw him behind her-over the platform's edge-she was positive he would survive. Then, she got into her battle stance and faced the three imps; whom just recovered from the hard collision with the elderly man. Quickly before the battle began, Issun; whom had been knocked off her head in the flurry of movement, hurried up the woman's body and onto her head-digging into her hair for protection.

The goddess blinked and her eyes began to shine like they did when she used a recovered power for the first time. They shone like miniature suns that shed holy, purifying light that enraged the demons. The ink black sections of her hair glowed darker, deeper, creating the visage of a deep ocean trench that stretched its wicked hands into the bowels of the earth. Upon these activating, a sort of seal manifested around the divine maiden and the demons with symbols translating to: evil, greed, monster, etc. Acting like monkeys they pounded their chests and bounced up and down in an aggressive manner. The middle imp was the most brash, as he literally bounced over and lunged for the maiden. His fingers were pressed together and curved like a wicked hook; dirt-blackened claws and all. Amaterasu rose her arm and hit her forearm into the gap of the cupped hand, knocking the imp's hand and arm back; claws clipping her in the process. It wasn't a meager scratch, but at the same time it didn't break skin. What it had torn through was a layer of her divine shield, a metaphysical three-layered barrier of divine energy that protects gods and goddesses from physical harm. However, because of the weakened state she was forced in, the layers were quite weak.

The barrier's first layer shimmered around her body like a form-fitting kimono that showed a woman's more "voluptuous" features. The shards of the metaphysical barrier took the physical form of ink written characters that translated into words such as "Divinity", "Protection", etc. Despite the lack of bodily damage, the hit still made the seductive woman recoil like a python that's been struck. It was her divine energy that created the metaphysical aura, and suffice to say, it hurt almost worse than it did to have her actual body damaged.

The imp's arm was pushed back; nearly breaking from the momentum in which it reeled behind his back, and as a result his body jerked back with the momentum of the push. To avoid falling he took several steps backward and recomposed himself for another strike. He opened his mouth and let out a bone-chilling, monkey-like screech that pierced the ears mercilessly, communicating with his two brothers. Said brothers began to maneuver around the infuriating goddess; one moving to her right while the other flanking her from behind. Both brother's took out their flutes, but while one put it to its mouth and began playing, the other advanced towards the gorgeous maiden. Once close enough he arched his back and drew in a colossal breath of air, then arched in and blew into the flute. The demonic energy stored in both the flute and its player merged together and formed a scatter effect of demonic energy pellets.

The pellets peppered the maiden, chewing through her aura till there was nothing left to form a barrier. When each layer broke it changed color, the first layer had been a sort of green ink, the second yellowish, and the final a crimson red. Upon the dissolving of the final barrier, Amaterasu reeled back; stumbling, towards the imp behind her in a diagonal direction. It began playing its flute, charging its energy into the size of a rabbit, then it huffed with all its might and sent the attack flying towards the woman. Then the imp in front of her charged and jumped up with both cupped hands moving to hit and dig into her flawless flesh.

That's when everything stopped, stopped faster than even time could register, then time followed suit and froze in place. The paper-like world of creation took form and represented the surroundings around her.

The goddess's eyes trailed-in unison to her head-behind her and blankly gazed at the ball of energy. It rippled like rushing rapids and glowed with a dark indigo. Her hand eloquently moved back; wrist making gingerly beautiful motions in tangent with her fingers, and so too did her back arch in. She bent further and further back till she was nearly vertical; sex and chest's mountains nearly exposed, then a blob of ink bubbled from her first ink pot and floated over to paint her fingers black. The goddess caressed her fingers onto the fabric of reality and drew a sharp line across it, drawing a thin line across the demon behind her. Then she reached her arm around and grabbed onto the divine instrument's grip on her back; arm and hand contorting so gracefully to do so. At the same time, her right hand reached down and grabbed onto and painfully dug her fingernails into the wooden boards.

**_Blink, away the realm faded._**

Time sped up once again and the creatures of the mortal realm began moving yet again. It receded into the state it was before, only with a few differences. The ball of demonic energy missed its intended target; grazing the peaks of the "mountains", and delved into the chest of the lunging imp. Not only that, but an invisible force cut clear through the imp's chest and shoved it back; making the severed halves flail helplessly in the air. Without missing a beat, Amaterasu made her body go limp before using her right hand to swing and hoist herself closer to the third imp. When at the top of her arch she pulled out and straightened her left arm with the divine instrument in hand and, coincidentally, ran it down the third imp's body; cutting him clean down the middle, before crashing the mirror into the boards and landing on her hands and feet like a cat. These imps fell to the ground, lifeless, before their bodies shriveled away into a thing of flowers that had a small and brief wave of grass pulse out from it. Not only that, but when they died their bluish purple fangs had been left in the corpses wake. Being valued by some mortals, Amaterasu found it wise to pick up the three fangs and put them in a pouch next to her coin pouch. [3 Demon Fangs] Then their greed turned into material coin and surged towards the goddess; tainted souls wanting purification, and into her coin pouch. [4003 yen] 

_**Blink, away the seal dissipated.**_

Her hair and eyes returned to their default white w/black and orangish red hues. Her chest rose and fell gently, exhausting her energy from the destruction of her divine aura. Up she rose from the ground and catch she did the sight of the water-less pond exploding with a wide area of blindingly beautiful flowers and golden grass. Once the event faded, titan sized trees, some flowers, shrubbery, a few animals, rocks jutting out here and there, water and plants protruding from said water populated the little grove. It was a splendid sight. Such restoration of nature empowered her, made her feel stronger and more loved as nature began to realize their mother and protector had returned. Even if it was just a little now, it still meant a great deal to the maiden. [20 Praise]

"Wow!" squeaked the poncle that timidly returned to the deity's head. "You really get aggressive when you're mad, don't ya?!"

For a moment, his bouncing stopped, then it began again; quicker than before. "Hey! You've gotten stronger, that means you got some _praise! _And look! See how that dried-up spring began flowing again? That's because ridding an area of monsters restores the god's power to the land. People call it, "_Divine Intervention_". The more you restore the land to its natural beauty, the more praise you'll get. It's the source of your power, after all."

He breathed a high-pitched, saddened sigh. "Few people believe in the gods these days, and that may weaken you, but if you try real hard, your true power just might shine through. But boy, there's sure been a lotta monsters around lately. And that Mr. Orange you tossed around up on the sacred deck... looks like he thinks you're a _regular maiden with some strange ears_. Seems the gods have grown so weak people can't see them anymore-" he stopped and mumbled a few words in a grumble. "Oh, uh... Anyway, I'll show you around the village. I have a feeling we're in for an epic adventure! This should be fun, sweet-cheeks!"

The information dump was a bit redundent, for Amaterasu knew a majority; if not all, of what he had told her. She hadn't, however, guessed that the gods had grown so weak, that so many people had given up on their deities. It brought a sad frown; a sight that would drive any man who saw it into a fit of uncontrolled, bridled rage, to her face.

On she trekked, closer to the ramp/stairs down the large hill, when she saw a little bad of seeds. These seeds looked to be feed, feed used to feed things like birds and such. Picking it up underneath the string that bound the mouth of the pouch shut, she held it in front of her face and mulled over the animals that would enjoy eating the assortment of seeds. That's when she heard the tweeting and bouncing of birds, small, adorable birds. Down she craned her neck and her eyes were greeted with the expected adorably sweet sight of multiple birds hopping about the grass, lowering their bodies and pecking at the dirt every so often. An appropriate smile, wide and happy, upturned the corners of her mouth; which parted to let out a soft giggle.

Amaterasu untied the string while kneeling down to sit on her haunches. She stuck her hand into the now ajar maw of the pouch and pulled out a petite handful of seeds. These seeds were of a wide variety: roasted seeds, grass seeds, fruit seeds, tree seeds, etc. Her wrist made short, listless motions to spread the seeds along the ground; quickly gathering the birds into a volery, for the cute things to eat. They chirped and bounced and pecked away to their hearts content until the bag emptied; in which each belly was jubilantly filled, in which they crooned a harmonious chorus of chirps and tweets to thank the wondrous maiden. In response she closed her eyes and tilted her head side to side with her slowly swaying hands; with pointer fingers up, in the rhythm of the song. She felt the same feeling when she revived the dead spring mere moments prior. [30 praise] (1)

Down she went and rounded the corner she did, find an unconscious old man balancing perfectly on the back of his frail neck and collar. The maiden's face fell into a guilty mien; hand moving behind her back and began running through her long and silky hair. This was a nervous tick that she, a goddess, had. The man whom had been a statue before was now back to normal, flute still pressed to hidden lips with a harmonic melody rolling out of it like a rushing runnel. The sound was as beautiful as a choir of angels singing a holy prayer to their precious god(s) above. This monk's basket concealed head subtly turned; a side wards glance being taken, and went back to default position before doing a double take. Once done, he stared at the maiden with a hidden visage, then he quickly motioned over to her a "come hither" gesture. The goddess had no reason to ignore one of her child's request, so she happily sauntered over to the monk. But, when she approached him, the feeling from before came back to her.

"Ah... I feel it. I sense it. Foul beasts dwell in this place!Concentrate. Look hard. You see. Right behind you..." he warned with a muffled voice.

As if on cue, the sound of two familiar screeches echoed from behind the maiden. She craned her head and looked over her shoulder, seeing two green imps lunging for the monk and herself. They were barely a foot away from them when she blinked. Her eyes, now suns, and black hair coloring's, now deep abysses of black. A blob of ink bubbled out from her first ink pot; nearly emptied, and cascaded itself into a rather thick, crude line across both demons. Again she blinked-eyes and hair back to normal, and when she did the line had disappeared and the same small force came crashing to the ground then fluently jumped; diagonally, and sliced clean through the two imps.

Their corrupted black blood (2) splattered out of their now spiraling corpse halves and splattered the ground and the three people they had been lunging for. Their skin and clothing was painted a tainted black; staining beautiful garments and fair skin, before the blood and corpses blossomed into bloomed flowers and fresh grass. Again their fangs were left in their wake and again their greed materialized into monetary value. [5 Demon Fangs, 4237 Yen]

When the demons were slain, the monk took the flute from his mouth and placed it and his hand on his heart.

"Humans are not witness to such battles, but I saw it! The fighting lasted a mere _four seconds_." he proclaimed with high praise in his tone. "Hmm... You fight well. I have chosen the path of the Buddha, but in you I sense another power-more than just the power of a mortal maiden. And I see the path you have chosen is also a path of truth. To you, I praise."

The feeling she experienced twice before now happened thrice. It was a joyous feeling, being seen as a divine force and exterminating more of the nasty creatures. [37 praise]

Now the maiden had a choice. Go up and look at the tree, at Sakuya now that the village had been restored, or, go down and explore the village. Personally, she favored the former, however, there was this odd blanket of curiosity wrapping around her mind. While she had gotten her old self back after recovering a few of her powers, she still had a lingering ghost of the overly ditz and naive creature she'd been before. So up the first set of ground carved stairs she climbed, then when the white shrine arch came into view, so too did the withered tree.

Amaterasu gazed at the sad sight with a fallen demeanor; slothfully trudging around the arch and to the tree. There was one difference to the tree this time around, however. In the gap that once held the sun bright, glowing portal was now a miniaturized statue of _Nagi_. There were also two women; one adult and a little one, standing before the tree and statue with their heads craned up in a rubberneck stare. The goddess approached the women listlessly; overhearing the two murmuring incomprehensible words to each other. When the woman drew near the two, she stepped on a twig that, consequently, startled the older one; so much so that she physically jumped and spun around to face her.

"Wow! I never knew a woman as beautiful as you could exist, and with snow white w/ ink black hair and wolf ears to boot!" she said with a gasp. "And... you really look like that statue of Shiranui, but I thought that disappeared. It... didn't just come to life, did it?"

"Hey, sis," chimed in the older woman's little sister. "that woman's got something weird on its back."

"What? Stop being silly! That's how rumors start! And after that nonsense about seeing a door of light here before..."

"But I did! I did see it! Right inside this shrine! There was a door of light!"

"I don't see any door of light!"

"But it was there! Inside this shrine! I saw it!" the little one emitted a soft boo-hoo noise; tearing up a bit.

Amaterasu turned her head back and forth between the two sisters, observing the squabble with a blank face. It was pointless as neither were incorrect, for they both truly saw what they could perceive and to them what they saw was the correct answer. However, the disbelief of the older one stung the maiden's golden heart; making her mouth spread a bitter-sweet smile. For a while she stood with the sisters, hearing their comments while observing the smaller Nagi statue with a scrutinizing gaze. Then, when decided their was little else to do in that particular spot, she moved back down the hill and went down to the village.

The place was lively; hopping almost, despite its size. All the statues had taken their rightful form of people and said people were keeping themselves quite busy with their daily tasks. One was standing in the middle of a turnip farm, guarding, tending, and generally admiring it. Another was working hard in a rice field, tilling and pulling out ripe rice stalks and such. A few people doing things that were equivalent to a medium sized village's task. She treads down the coarse dirt path looking at everything there was to observe, taking interest in a rather rambunctious boy whom was running with a dog and a string attached to a fly. She approached the boy, holding her hands behind her back as her eyes trailed the boy's movements; which ran around her like an obstacle. The boy didn't seem to notice the maiden, until he ran into her mile-long, slender legs that is.

"Ow, what the...?" he used his free hand to rub his head; which craned up to look at Amaterasu. "A white haired girl with wolf ears...? Now that's just plain weird. She sure looks weak... Hey! I know your not a dog, but do you think you could challenge my dog _Hayabusa_?"

"You tryin' to mess with your mother again Mushi?" Issun murmured in a not-really-interested manner.

The goddess pondered the request for a moment while looking the boy up and down. He wore simple blue clothing; like that of a farmer's child, that were a bit worse for wear with little else to speak of. His hair was an inky black and his skin was fair, not as fair as hers but fair enough, while his innocent eyes held a hue of brown. After a few moments, the woman nodded at the child's request.

"Awesome! Well you see, there's this field my mama tends to... and, well, Hayabusa managed to _dig up nine turnips in a row_, even though my mama was chasing him around trying to slug him! There are actually ten turnips in that field... Hyabusa is fixin' to _get all ten_. So I was wondering... could you try and beat Hayabusa's record, I want to see how impossible it is!"

The voice held childish pride as he spoke with high regards of his dog; hands crossed behind his head. The woman had a small smile spread across her cheeks at the silliness of the boy's request.

_ Have an ordinary woman dig up turnips? How cute._

The maiden agreed with the nod of a head and proceeded to stroll onto the field; walking around the turnips the child's mother seemed so fond of. The turnips looked healthily green with the green, white stem leaves held high off the top of a white top. It was the rather hefty woman that stood watch over the field whom mothered the rather mischievous boy named Mushi. The woman was mumbling to herself about the field, something that rather irked her.

"I've had just about enough of this! I don't know if its stray dogs or monsters or what, but someone keeps messin' up my crops! Going around _digging up holes..._ it makes me mad!" Her tone was sweet, but also tainted with boiling rage.

The woman was so mad that she wanted to strike out at the closest thing next to her without actually lunging to hit them. She would save that for if and when they tried to dig up her field. But, she did want to just vent her anger out on something. So, when she heard the shifting of dirt nearby, she turned and stabbed an accusing finger out to the cause of the noise. Her cheeks were flushed with anger and steam practically radiated from her head; which had a water bucket tied to the top.

"If I catch you diggin' around here, you'll get a good thumpin'!" That's when she stopped and looked at the girl. She looked beautiful, yes, but so skinny that she could have passed for a rice stalk.

Despite such clothing, she had to of been low or had no money. At best she probably stole the clothing, and this woman took pity on such things.

_Poor thing must be starving..._

The woman looked back and forth; making sure no one nearby could see, and when the coast was clear the woman motioned over to the maiden. Curiously, Amaterasu stepped closer and closer until she was about a foot and a half away from the robust woman. She had a pitiful mien contorting her once enraged face.

"Okay, listen... if you don't tell anyone that I let you... then you can have the turnips of the field this one time. They wont survive the months to come... the crops haven't been really... growing well this year." avowed the woman pitifully.

The goddess cocked her head before looking down at herself. Yes, she was a bit skinny and yes, she was a bit beat up looking; considering the fight a whole century ago, but did she appear like a starving girl? She was unsure, but she did count this as a blessing as she began to grab at and pull out each turnip by the stem. Once she got out all tenth turnip, the maiden found that it was, "odd" looking. Appearing to be like a mixture between a turnip, a carrot, and a radish all at the same time. She also found that, her stomach; which had still been rather empty, forced her to eat nine of the ten turnips that were removed from the ground. They were delectable, tasting like crisp vegetables being thrown into a stew hung over a crackling fire. Her stomach was quite appeased after such a banquet.


	7. Chapter I, Page IV

Amaterasu took purposeful strides back to the boy, whose name was Mushi, who asked her to try and beat his dog's record of hole digging. Grasped in one of her dainty hands was the green leaves of a very odd shaped turnip. Mushi-noticing this-jumped back in surprise. Never in all his years, which were quite few, had he ever thought that a woman could out-dig a dog, never! Yet, here was the evidence that proved him wrong.

"That's... that's..." he stuttered. "The _Oddly Shaped Turnip _Hayabusa and I've been looking for! That means... you've broken Hayabusa's record by digging up all ten turnips!"

The boy's sheer disappointment made the woman feel bad. She had dug up each turnip yes, but it was only after the child's mother allowed her to.

"Gosh darn it!" he cursed, kicking a rock on the ground.

The kid let out a sigh before crossing his arms behind his head, "Fine... you're the better canine, as far as diggin' is concerned. Anyway, It actually feels good to have a new goal to aim for. So... thanks! I guess."

A new feeling-similar, but different-occurred. It was the warm and empowering feeling felt thrice ere, only it was changed in subtle ways that made it all the sweeter to experience. It was a warm, fuzzy feeling that tickled the depths of her golden heart. A feeling of love and belief that could only come from the happiness that mortals rarely experienced now-a-days. This happiness, after finished with channeling itself through the mortal's heart, relays the rest of its energy to the world. A little bit of energy, of the happiness is given to the plants, the animals, the sky, the ground, the air, the people, while still saving the majority for the gods and goddesses above. This was exactly what Amaterasu felt, this pureness that came with a moment, or life, of elation and joy in life. All of this was what she felt-a small percent at least-and it was this that made her happy and smile.

The boy then ran up to his dog, Hayabusa. He threw his arms around the dog's neck and gave him a squeeze. The dog barked and happily accepted his master's loving embrace. It was a sweet sight, one that she couldn't spend too much time watching. So, with hesitation, the great goddess Amaterasu moved on from the touching scene of affection. She returned to the trail and walked along it, she took in the sights the quaint hamlet had to offer. Their way of life was simple, but exquisite. That simple elegance showed its colors in the existence of a small rice field; a brewery was built next to the rice field. By the looks of it, the crops had just finished growing and now were in need of harvesting; coincidentally, someone was harvesting the crops. This person caught the divine maiden's attention, quite quickly at that.

So: Amaterasu sidled up to the woman in a not-so-discreet manner.

This mortal beauty, and it was clear that she was quite beautiful, for a mortal, was bent over a few rice stalks and had her hands delved into the murky water that the stalks protruded from. It was a gray slosh that had been thickened from the nutrients of the, fertile, soil seeping into the water; the plants already absorbed the nutrients they desired of the hour, before receding into the soil, once again, and liquefying the water. However, the water was still in a sort of middle ground between thick slosh and flowing water. The state in which the water happened to be in at the end was always dependent on how long the crop-rice stalks-took to grow. This kind of slosh-y water left horrid gunk on the skin; the damage on the skin of a maiden as fair-toned as her was doubled the norm. Luckily, though, the woman's fine, black hair was short with large locks of hair pulled up and tucked into an odd hat with various strips of white hanging down on the front and back of her head. This hat carried on it three, wrapped, rolls of some unnamed item-the trio of wrapped goods were stacked, pyramid-style. Unfortunately, however, the woman's dazzling kimono-of red and gray and tan color variants-was caught in the sloshing water. Her kimono was eloquent, and it held a sort of regal beauty that only a maiden of age could wear. That very same beauty and elegance was a mirror that reflected off of the maiden's womanly features and face, onto her clothing, the only way for a kimono to possess such beauty.

The shadow of the goddess loomed over the harvester's scrunched up form. Eventually the woman noticed the deity's, dainty, shadow, and proceeded to rise from the murky water to see who the shadow belonged to. What this-humble-maiden found was a woman that possessed beauty that bordered on divine.

"Well, what a pretty looking maiden. Are you a priestess? Do you have a name?" the harvester asked. "Mine's _Kushi_. It's a pleasure to meet you."

"Workin' in the fields again, are ya?" piped Issun.

"Issun!" she gasped, putting her over sized sleeves to her mouth. "Are you and this shrine maiden together?"

"Wha- no, no! You got it all wrong Kushi! We're just... acquaintances, yeah, acquaintances."

"O-oh... I see."

"Yeah..."

"Well... this is where I grow the rice for making my sake, you know. But I have to manage the harvest all on my own. It's hard work. Maybe I should have _Susano_ give me a hand again this year? Oh listen to me blabbering to you! I just can't help chatting to you!"

"Well look at that..." murmured Issun, "Ole Ammy here found a friend. You go ahead and chat with her, I'm going to get some sunbathing in on your head."

With that, Issun bounced up and into the hair-filled depths of the goddess's scalp. Kushi returned to the tedious process of harvesting the rice, but found that Ammy, as Issun called her, wouldn't leave. In fact, when she thought she was about to move on, the beauty of a woman knelt down beside her and began helping with her harvesting efforts. At first, the sake brewer remained silent as she and Ammy harvested the rice, but eventually that got boring. So, Kushi decided, or rather, felt compelled, to drum up a conversation.

"Susano's a neighbor of mine. He's a little unusual, but... he goes around with a huge sword slung over his shoulder. He's always practicing with it. They say he's a direct descendant of our legendary hero, _Nagi_, and he loves his sake, too. He often pops around here to buy it."

Another stalk of rice was pulled out of the ground, and the resulting force caused the puller-Amaterasu-to stumble backwards and fall into the slosh with a splash. A moment of silence passed as the sake brewer and the goddess locked eyes with each other; a blank mien was shared. Then, breaking the silence, the two indulged in a chortle. Kushi pulled herself up from the slosh-covered ground and shuffled over to the maiden, and then she offered a hand to the petite goddess. Ammy took the brewer's hand gladly; her kimono wasn't as dirty as it should have been. However, it still saddened Kushi to see such an exquisite kimono get sullied.

"Oh, by the way, make sure to say hello to Susano when you see him," Kushi began, "I should think. He's always on his own."

In response: Amaterasu nodded. Susano, the name was quite familiar to the maiden; however, she could not remember from where she heard the name. Nagi, on the other hand, was a name she was very familiar with. How long had it been since she last saw the brave hero? A hundred years? It made the goddess, whose lifespan had started thousands upon thousands of years ago, feel quite old. The divine beauty put all that she harvested into the pile the sake brewer had been making, then she waved goodbye to her new friend before proceeding over to the nearby river. It was there that she washed her hands of the slosh-y mud, cleaned her nails of the dirt, and washed off what little mud remained on her kimono. Then, after finished with washing, she proceeded to shake herself dry.

It was an odd scene, although entertaining to watch. Much like a dog, Amaterasu shook her clothing, hair, and body to dry the liquid that soaked them to their cores. Issun wasn't happy about the movement, and he had to cling to the strands of her hair to keep from thrown clear. But he'd have to endure it, for he had no real say in the matter.

Whilst drying, Amaterasu noticed something that saddened her heart. This sight was of the waterwheel of what she could only guess to be a brewery; the rice farm that the Sake brewer harvested was planted next to the building. It looked old but that was only because of a large, missing chunk of the waterwheel. The way it was broken made it look like something of enormous size took a bite out of it like a doughnut. Its thick spokes-the spokes near the top half of the wheel-were as jagged as a dog's teeth, and the spokes were broken at the middle, or just about. The divine maiden sidled up as close as she could to the waterwheel and looked at it sadly.

Was it time or the demons that did this to the poor wheel...?

"Huh? Oh, hey, it's this thing. This old watermill's been broken for ages," Issun stated. "Now, how could we _fix something that's broken_?"

To the maiden's ears, she knew it for fact-Amaterasu was starting to regain her all-knowing prowess-Issun sounded very smug. IT was like he knew everything there was worth to know. Oh how little he knew, how little he realized how much she knew. Amaterasu was the goddess of the sun and rightful ruler-and know-er-of everything that has, is, and will exist.

However, the death from century's past robbed her of that foresight, and she was slowly regaining the knowledge she lost with every scrap of her power's former glory retrieved.

"Ain't ya gonna do anything about it? You are suppose to be a god, aren't you?" asked Issun.

The woman's eyes rolled; Amaterasu couldn't help herself. At some point she'd need to straighten her long-distant son out, but for now she was content with his presumptuous cockiness. So she played along: she blinked her eyes, they became two glowing, pulsating orbs of white and black that glowed like the sun, her fingers were drenched in globs of ink, and the world became the color of paper. She raised her hand and leaned forward; her fingers touched and dabbed a bit of ink onto the broken wheel. The woman's hands made gentle strokes this way and that until the broken spot on the waterwheel was completely filled with black, oozing ink. And once it was filled in like the canvas it was, she blinked, then the world faded back to the world of color and substance it was. However, it didn't return unchanged. The waterwheel that once was broken was now fixed, and it cast off the ink vale that kept the newly mended section secluded-then it began turning in the direction the water flowed, it let out zealous creaks and groans of work.

Noticing the sputtering of the old wheel, Kushi sauntered around to join the divine maiden to find that, against all odds, her trusty waterwheel had been repaired. She jumped for joy upon seeing such a sight. "The mill's been mended!" She was truly happy, for she could once again begin brewing her sake-her vehemence for brewing could be rekindled! But there came a puzzling thought: how did this happen, and who did it?

"But... who on earth did this?" she murmured.

A sly smile crept up Amaterasu's face, before spreading into a goofy one as she put up her hands and shrugged.

"Oh, you didn't see who did this?" She looked from the maiden to the wheel, then to her brewery. "I'd completely given up on the idea of making my sake. But now I can get on with polishing the rice!"

"Good for you, Kushi" chimed in Issun.

"Well," said Kushi, "no time like the present! I better get started!"

With a happy grin plastered to her face, Amaterasu watched Kushi happily rush to the entrance of her brewery. It made her feel good, helping the sake brewer; it empowered her actually. But it wasn't the type of empowering that she got from aiding nature or something of the like. It was the sort of empowering sensation that came from helping another with no ulterior motive in mind; a warmth inside her heart that flourished like a flower in spring. She waved a goodbye to her friend and took another look at the waterwheel.

"Say... don't people normally offer things like sake to the gods as _offerings_?" asked Issun.

The goddess thought, then she nodded.

"So, does that mean people might give us some free food and drinks!?"

Once again, she thought, and she shrugged.

"Oh... crud..."

Now she recalled the times that mortals used things like food and alcohol as a tribute to Amaterasu and her divine children. They, her divine kin, let her consume all of these offerings-the first time. However, since that time they desperately tried to keep alcoholic beverages away from her red lips, and the thirteen gods had good reason to do so. There was no telling what she would do when she became intoxicated, she did random things at times; destructive or illogical things some times, and all sense of reason and common sense took a leave of absence. No one knew exactly how a god like Okami Amaterasu could get besotted by some brew concocted by a mere mortal, and yet she did; it was a real mystery. But it proved one thing indefinitely: mortals could make life-threateningly strong alcohol. Now that she was thinking about food, about sustenance, and about alcohol, Amaterasu craved for the earthly desires. This desire must have been strong, for the desire became plain on her face; a runnel of drool dribbled down the sides of her crimson-rosy lips and her shoulders drooped, as well her posture, and her eyes were heavy-lidded.

"What's with that-no, surely you-is it even possible, I mean-you're a god, but- have you not had a bite to eat in a hundred years?" inquired Issun.

She didn't bother trying to hide it, nor did she really want to. The divine goddess was starving, truly starving, and had a desire for alcohol so fierce that not even her sake-enthusiast daughter could compare. How long had it truly been since she last felt the satisfaction of an offering or a tribute? The empowering of a mortal's praise, thanks, gratification for the Sun and goodness and existence she gave the mortals? Did they not love her anymore, or was it that her absence left a larger empty space than she anticipated? Just how much did her death affect the world of material substance? A stinging pain hit her head like a sharpened knife, perforating through her temple and sticking an inch of its tip into her brain. It hurt to think on such a wide scale, too try and view the entire world-a world which belonged to her by birth right-as she once could. Trying to imagine... no, recall the lives that had been, are, and will be pained her. If she tried to remember her birth right's history-everything that was, is, and would be-she was pained. And if she tried to hold the image of all that was her birth right inside her mind, an even greater pain afflicted her. Was she so weakened from that time, in addition to the time she was loathed by the burg's residents? I can't hold it against them, she thought. They believed me to be a witch, a consort for that dreaded demon, they had no way of knowing.

Despite her telling herself that, Amaterasu couldn't help but feel sorrow, bereft. The fact that no one but Issun could see the divine markings of her skin confirmed what she'd always feared: people began to abandon the gods. They would start to forget, and fact would turn into legend, legend into rumor, and rumor into myth. No doubt the people still prayed to the gods, but did they pray like they use to? Did they give as much as they asked for? Did they give when they asked for nothing? No, they do not, not anymore. This was the conclusion she drew from the limited scope of her powers.

"Hey, you did a real good job with the waterwheel. Boy! You sure come through when it counts!" proclaimed Issun.

Now, when she had nothing to be joyful about, she smiled. Somehow-this little Poncle found just the right things to say, at just the right time. That was something for her to be proud of, Issun had a very good, however singular, redeeming quality about him.

Amaterasu and her bouncing friend strolled from the brewery's side, back onto the burg's one road. However, there was something else that distracted the maiden. She was lured off the beaten trail once again, and she made her way towards a miniature dock that jutted out into the small river. The river was shallow, but not so shallow that someone couldn't drown in it-if they weren't careful. Its blue water rushed in a lull, floating to the mouth that opened into a miniature gulf that lead out to the ocean. Nearby the rickety dock were two Y-shaped poles that protruded from the grassy ground. They looked like the poles used to hold a third, and the third was used to hang wet clothes for the air and Sun to dry out. However, that third pole was missing. Wherever it had been absconded to, it certainly wasn't here now, was a complete mystery, and the drying pole's owner must be quite irked. However, that was a bridge she'd worry about when it came time to cross it, right now she was focused on the small pier and the one that presided over it.

At the very edge of the pier was a short, petite woman who was hunched over a large wooden bucket. Inside the bucket was water, likely it was from the river, but the water was white and cloudy with the suds and bubbles of soapy substance; a washboard and various articles of clothing filled the bucket, too. It was rather frightening to see how small this woman was, she had to use her waist for balance as she tipped herself into the bucket. The back of her head was very tamed; her whitened hair was trimmed, and a length of rope was tied around her head like a circlet On the woman's back was a basket of some sort, and she wore a light purple Kimono with a yellow sash tied into a bow around her back. But the most peculiar thing she had on her was the small orange placed perfectly on top of her head.

The woman sang a little song, or rather she hummed one, while she ran article upon article of clothing along the washboard, with vicious vehemence. It sounded familiar; however, Amaterasu couldn't recall the time or place she heard it before. She didn't let that stop her from enjoying it, though. Her eyes closed and she began bobbing her head left to right, in tune with the song, and so, too, did her tail. But the sweet ditty did not last for long, the woman felt someone standing behind her. With a groan: The ancient looking woman reached around and placed a hand on her back, dropped the current article of cloth, turned around, and looked at the one standing behind her. To her surprise, the elder found a spry and gorgeous woman dressed in an exquisite kimono. However, she looked overly skinny and rugged. How could the woman even afford the clothes on her back? It was likely she stole them, that was the only real explanation.

"Oh my, what a pretty girl." said the woman. "Did you wander into town looking for some food? Well, you'd better be careful dear. Lately, some monsters have been attacking the village."

"Do you even know who you're talking to, gramma Orange?" asked Issun. "This is Shiranui reborn! Sweet-cheeks and me got it covered. Those monsters are history!"

Upon spotting the bouncing green speck, it was hard for a woman her age to see small things, the old woman had a slight jump. "Well, if it isn't Issun! Riding on top of a pretty maiden, are we?" She gave the woman a good scrutiny. "This one certainly resembles Shiranui, especially the hair. Hmm... well, I'd better get back to my work," she trailed off with a grumble.

Then the ancient woman turned back around, cracked her back, and resumed her tedious scrubbing. However, Amaterasu did not leave. She wished to know what was bothering her friend, but she didn't want to force her to talk if she didn't want to. What was the point in giving mortals the pleasure of free will if she wouldn't let them exercise it? Eventually, the elderly woman noticed that the maiden's shadow hadn't moved, so she turned around once more; her hand on her back and everything from the last time.  
"Here to listen to the ramblings of an old woman, are you?" asked Mrs. Orange.

"Well, I was doing laundry, but when I was ready to dry, I noticed my drying pole was gone," said Mrs. Orange. "Oh, whatever shall I do?"

In her despair, Mrs. Orange turned around yet again and resumed her laundry washing. Issun was silent for a moment, like he was contemplating something, but then jumped up as if he realized something.

"She's missing _something that should be there_, is she?" said Issun. "You'd better help her out, sweet-cheeks."

In truth, Issun didn't even need to say anything. By the time he realized, Ammy was already standing in front of the two support poles. She blinked and the world of creation came to her again. She reached forward and stabbed her ink covered fingertips onto the Y-shaped head of the left-most pole, then she drug her finger across the gap to the second pole. And she blinked once more. The world of paper, ink, and white faded away like the melting snow in spring.

Immediately after coming out of that world, the finely drawn line exploded to reveal a brand new drying pole. Amaterasu couldn't tell if it was like the last one Mrs. Orange owned, for the entire thing was a segmented section of bamboo, but it appeared to be enough for the elderly woman. For upon noticing the existence of this new pole, Mrs. Orange pulled out of and took a step back from the laundry and water bucket, and she gazed upon the newly appeared pole with reverence.

"A new drying pole!?" cried Mrs. Orange, voiced filled with glee.

The woman clasped her hands together as she stared at the pole with joy spilling out of her eyes.

"The gods must have answered my prayers," said Mrs. Orange. "How wonderful! It's time to dry the laundry!"

Without a moment's delay, Mrs. Orange proceeded to pull each article of clothing, dripping with water, out from the small tub and then draped each article across the pole. It was a quick movement, probably quicker than someone her age should have, and she was done in the blink of an eye. However, there was something that was troubling the elderly woman. Maybe it was the fact that, after several minutes, the clothes were still sopping wet? Whatever the reason, her frustration was felt by Amaterasu and magnified by ten. She simply couldn't believe that the clothing wasn't dry yet, why wasn't it dry? She had her drying pole back, so why wasn't it working? No, she though, these are not my thoughts, these are the thoughts of a distressed human. Amaterasu approached Mrs. Orange and knelt down, now she was at eye level, and leaned forward to look at the elder's frustrated mien.

"Well, I'm glad I was able to hang my laundry," said Mrs. Orange, "but... the sun seems so far away these days. Maybe it doesn't like all those monsters that are lurking about? Is the Sun goddess frightened of those monsters? Or... does she fear what her children have become? _Not many people pray to the gods for their sake now a days_..."

A deep sadness filled Amaterasu's soul.

"If only it would _shine closer, my laundry would dry in a second_," murmured Mrs. Orange.

"Hey," whispered Issun, "you heard the lady, she wants the _Sun_."

Ammy nodded in response. She blinked and the other world presided over the colored one, her pupils glowing like two suns. The Sun was quite far away, this was true, but she hadn't taken the time to ponder why. Amaterasu was the Sun goddess, and it was both her conscious and subconscious self that controlled what the Sun did. If she wasn't around, there'd be no Sun whatsoever, but if her subconscious mind felt like the mortal world deserved less or more of the Sun's radiant light, then it would wan or wax it accordingly. However, she never consciously knew whether she was doing such an act. All Ammy could do was consciously fix whatever might be off with the Sun. And sometimes she did this solely to make a single mortal's life an iota better than it was previously.

The great god Amaterasu lifted her hand up, pointing it high in the air, and willed a blob of ink-from the replenishing ink vials strapped to her hips-to drift up to the tip of her finger. She stabbed her pointer through the black blob, then continued by drawing a large circle to the area that would aid Mrs. Orange's laundry. And when the inky circle was stamped into the world, then that world faded to the colored one, the inky circle grew pitch black before blooming into the red, orange, and yellow fiery flower that was the Sun; the world was lit up to the soft azure of morning by the Sun's closeness. It was almost close enough to see the interconnecting streams of fire that surged outwards before getting sucked back into the great fiery ball. Startled by the sudden advance of the Sun, Mrs. Orange jumped and looked up to the great colorful orb, one hand raised to shield her eyes from its bright majesty.

"My word!" cried Mrs. Orange. "The sun has suddenly drawn so close... My laundry will be bone dry in no time!"

She was quite cheerful, her voice was just flowing with vehemence. "First my pole, now this? Will the miracles never cease? Maybe I should make some _Cherry Cakes _to offer to that goddess of the Sun..."

The very thought of food made Amaterasu's mouth water.

"Oh! Come back tonight if you want some, too, Snowfall," said Mrs. Orange. "You don't mind me calling you that, do you?

I mean you have such long hair, and I've never seen someone with pure white hair before."

"Snowfall? Ha! That's a good one, granny, I'll have to remember that one!" cried Issun.

Amaterasu didn't mind the nickname, she was getting plenty of them lately, but she did mind the thought of food. What would they taste like? And what would it smell like? Could it smell like the sweet scent of a flower right after blooming, or the fragrance of a ripened fruit, freshly picked from the plant it grew off of? There were so many questions, and each one buzzed around her mind like an angry wasp. These thoughts were so distracting, that she actually missed the familiar feeling of a mortal praising her divine powers. [45 Praise.]

The great god Amaterasu stayed with Mrs. Orange for a while longer, now she was washing the remaining laundry at her leisure, before deciding to move on. Ammy proceeded to the bridge that crossed the river. She noticed that on both sides of the bridge, there were wilted sacred trees with pitch black bark rooted in the ground, a grim aura was about them. They were almost mirror images of every of sacred tree in the village; surely there wasn't so much evil in the world that every sacred tree has wilted away to nothing? It worried her that such divine trees could be rendered to such a sorry state. But it also reminded her of the state the mortal world was forced to wallow in. The hundred year long slumber she'd been cast into, an unfortunate side effect of the fight with Orochi. There was no question about it; Amaterasu had to set things right once again.

Ammy sauntered across the bridge, trying not to look at the deceased trees, and meandered along the sole road. The more she stayed inside the town, the more memory of it she recalled. Now she knew the entire layout of the town, what environments it consisted of, what species; how many and the population of each, of animal resided within it, each resident's name, the lives each villager has led and will lead in the future, how long the village had been around, and some of the village's history. Some of the things she remembered caused a deep sadness to take root like pesky weeds. It made her wonder why the occupants, one in particular, of the little hamlet would commit themselves to such actions. Had her absence left such a soul-crushing void, from which there was no escape? Did she bring more despair, rather than peace and happiness into the world after that battle a hundred years in the past.

"Heave! Heave!" cried a high voice, stirring Ammy from her unpleasant reverie.

Amaterasu stopped moving immediately after hearing the voice and rubbernecked at the source. Unsurprisingly, the mouth of the ravine was clogged by boulders the size of monoliths. Sometimes she wished she had the bliss of ignorance, for the omniscient knowledge of mortals' intentions and actions and lives left no room for wishful thinking. Nothing could be hid from the great goddess, the mother of all things; therefore, the darkness inside a mortal's soul. Amaterasu knew the how and the why the boulders were present in the mouth of the strait, and she wished she didn't.

"This is weird!" said the man, he looked like a flamboyantly dressed merchant. "My mind really wants to shift this rock, but my body won't cooperate. It's like I'm made of lead! Could this be the case of a demonic possession? I sure hope not!"

It was right then that the cause for the man's inability to shunt the rock became clear. And, unfortunately for the merchant, it was the cause of mischievous demons toying with the mortal's body. However, there weren't just the normal demons this time. Among two green imps was a stronger demon, a redder demon, a demon that wielded a demonic sitar. Other than the different symbol on the mask, its clothing composed of several shades of red-instead of green-and being slightly larger than its green counterparts, the red imp was no different than a green imp. The demon made his entrance in a gaudy stream of low chords and a twirling flourish of its sitar, while clinging to the neck like a branch. And with one final pluck of its sitar, the red imp grabbed the head of its sitar, leaped into the air, slung the sitar over its shoulder, and landed in front of Amaterasu; two other green imps joined the fray.

**_The Seal Appears_**

The light of day dimmed to a crimson hue, it was like someone took privy to painting the entire world red. A sickly sweet melody danced on the lulled zephyr like the leaf falling from the branch. This malevolent song played in a kilter of the high-pitch pips of flutes and the low chords strummed on a string instrument; only demons could produce such a bitter-sweet sound. The red clad demon shuffled to the side, its knuckles dragged across the ground, and sized up the goddess. Clearly it remembered Ammy, surely it knew of her power, but it acted a bit more cockily than it should have. There was no question about it; the red imp could sense the absence of her true power. It probably felt like killing her would be an easy feat, but it was horribly mistaken. One of the green imps positioned itself behind Amaterasu and brought the flute to its lips and blew out a sour note with all its might. And the note was so sour, a familiar ball of blackish-purple negative energy was propelled from the end of the flute.

Ammy, focused on the red imp, could sense the sudden presence of pure negative energy; however, she could not react in time. The blackish-purple ball made contact with the maiden (it collided with the back of her knee) and caused her to stumble forwards. When it made contact, the negative energy caused the only layer of divine protection protecting Amaterasu to disperse. Seizing this opportunity, the red imp took hold of its sitar's neck, jumped up, and proceeded to whip its sitar off its back and slammed the head into the small of Ammy's back. That was more than enough to severe her from her balance, and Amaterasu continued to stumble until she fell flat on the ground. When she was hurt, this time, Ammy felt the pain. It was like a white-hot fire poker perforated her small of the back. But she couldn't let this pain stop her. The imps, seeing the anguish they caused, proceeded to cavort like happy-go-lucky fools: bumping their chests together, beating their fists against their pecks, headbutting each other, and screeching and hooting and hollering like chimpanzees. And in their merriment they did not pay attention to the divine maiden, whose body was slowly rising from the dirt.

Amaterasu picked herself up off the ground and faced the imps. She could feel the weakened state her body had been reduced to; a century of death sapped her divine powers till she was nearly as weak as a mortal. Her legs were shaky, Ammy had to fight to keep standing, and she had to keep her arm around her abdomen to keep her torso from hunching any further. It irked her to see that these piteous demons could reduce her to such a state. As the imps continued their silly cavorting, Amaterasu returned to the world of creation. Two of her three ink bottles emptied themselves, and the blobs of ink proceeded to drench the entirety of her left hand in pitch black ink. There were streaks and slivers of black that found their way onto her forearm, but the majority was layered on the skin of her hand. Ammy drew a single fat line across each green imp. Then she let the world fade back to color and watched with sadistic joy as her child Tachigami's invisible essence cleaved the imps in two. [6 Demon Fangs, 4505 Yen] The red imp's cavorting died immediately and it jumped back, startled. Its red garbs were stained with the black blood of its brethren and it was mortified. And it was still mortified even after their essence was purified and their blood turned into currency and foliage. How had the goddess survived their combined attack? Why had they underestimated her? They would die for such a grave error, but not before the red imp achieved vengeance.

However, the goddess had other plans for the demon. Amaterasu was consumed in a momentary rage (it derived from her hurt pride) and wished death upon the demon. Thankfully-for her-the death of the two demons empowered her with a percentage of their cleansed essences. With the invigorating and rejuvenating power of their essences, Ammy's body was healed. She reached back and took hold of the divine mirror hovering off her back. Her wrist flicked this way and that as if cavorting to her own little tune, then she slammed part of the mirror, indestructible, into the verdant ground. A tremor was sent out from the impact, and the ground trembled in response. And so, too, did the surviving imp. It did not get time to fear, however, as she couldn't hold herself back. While shooting a vehement leer at the imp, Amaterasu lifted the mirror from the ground and charged forward.

The red imp was petrified with fear; it never experienced fear before. Such a sublime, yet bitter-sweet sensation. Was this what mortals' felt whenever demons interfered with their daily lives? How quaint. Why did they have the pleasure of feeling this emotion, and why couldn't demons feel it normally? It was rather unfair that-unless threatened with death-demons couldn't experience fear. The imp no longer had time to stew in the feelings of jealousy and terror. Amaterasu was upon him like the wind, sudden and immediate. The mien etched into her delicate skin was one of blood lust and destruction; she was an angel of death. There was no escape and there was no hope for survival, not now, not after enraging the great Sun goddess. But she wasn't just the goddess of the Sun: she was the origin of all that is good, mother of us all, origin of all other Kamis, rightful owner of creation, and protector of the good. In a sense-Amaterasu was the only needed god; in fact, every other god and goddess was, essentially, a mere child birthed from the holiest of wombs. She raised the mirror high above her head and let the shining back reveal itself; the glean from the blood tinted light was blinding, before the Sun-etched side took the reflective side's place. Then, without hesitation, she brought the edge of the mirror down on the very edge of its shoulder where the arm connects to the rest of the body. The pain the mirror gave, and the anguish it drove into each individual fiber of the demon's body, as it seamlessly hacked through the imp's shoulder, then abdomen, then stomach, then hip was insufferable. And it could have only been compared to bathing in a bath of scolding holy water, blessed by a god of exorcism. There was no surviving such an attack; the red imp was quite dead. And it was evident from the black blood, the same that spewed out of his allies' bodies moments prior, that burst from the gaping maw of its severed body. It was like popping the elastic seal of a weary water balloon.

Before the imp's torso, lower or otherwise, could make contact with the ground, it vanished in an explosion of purification. Its body went white with the purifying light of the goddess's divine intervention, and then the two halves made contact with the ground. After the first touch, the red imp's body began to dissipate into the vivid colors of floral growth, and it flopped onto the ground after a second time making contact with the ground, then it went inanimate. But before the final purification could render the entirety of its body into floral growth and purify its blood into the form greed and sin could only take, it witnessed a scene most peculiar.

Amaterasu strode forward and knelt by the imp's head. In her eyes was the watery levels of tears, and a mien of bittersweet success was plastered to her flawless face. Did she regret killing him and his friends? That was preposterous; why would a deity care about some lowly demons? Her hand reached out to touch the piteous imp's mask, but as soon as her fair, dainty fingers touched the paper, it fall apart as if it had been soaked in water. The rest of the imp's body began to do the same, slowly he was being purified.

_I'm sorry I was so rough._

In the final moments of life, the imp was hearing things. But, no, it definitely heard a voice. The voice was melodious, clear, calm, seductive, everything a man would look for in a woman's voice and more. And upon discerning the qualities and goodness and concern of the voice, the imp realized that it was the goddess herself that was speaking to him. However, it was through his mind.

_I don't know what came over me... but, I hope you can forgive me. A mother hates it when she has to slap one of her children._

In the end, when its mischievous life came to an end, it got to hear the most wondrous voice given to the most beautiful woman ever conceived. For once: The red imp was happy. [5100 Yen]

**The Seal Dissipates**

Once the demons' negative energy was purged, the land was released from the icy and steely grip of a wicked evil. Being as weak as she was, Amaterasu couldn't step back and withstand the remarkably vast, maddening visage of the polluting lake of evil, which carved the countless runoffs, dark and cruel, of demonic negative energy. However, the little things she did here and there was enough for her to be satisfied; that is to say the cleansing and revival of the trees, animals, and plants at the mouth of the ravine. [75 praise] If and when she recovered the power she had a century ago, that's when the maiden would deal with the source of evil. Until then, though, Amaterasu would be making subtle, calculated strides closer to the evil she sought. An ancient presence that she knew, and the goddess knew that the presence shouldn't be as evident as it was. However, her knowledge of how she knew such a fact had yet to return to her.

"Whoa, Ammy!" exclaimed Issun. "You're glowing!"

It had gone unnoticed for the moment, but the bouncing speck Issun's cry made Ammy aware of this glow.

"Does..." he trailed off, "Does that mean your divine power can grow stronger?!"

Hearing such excitement in her partner's voice caused a chortle to breeze past her supple lips. In response, the maiden nodded. Issun jumped extra high in the air. She closed her eyes and focused on the happiness and belief and praise that she'd accumulated from the environment and the people; seeing that even this patch on the world was beginning to believe in the gods once more brought an indescribable and overflowing joy to her heart. A thin line of water ran from one end to the other of her right eye, and then dribbled out a runnel that swiftly followed the lines of her cheeks. Their love and praise, worship and belief, all of it coalesced into a bright ball of ever-changing colors, vivid and flamboyant, that swirled around her essence until, finally, becoming one with the goddess. The world shuttered softly in response; still unaccustomed to the maiden's presence.

What kept her weak was the mortal's declining belief and trust in the gods. Each mind Ammy caused to rethink and reevaluate the gods' existence brought her closer to her divine children. Even now, she could feel the loving warmth of Yomigami and Tachigami grow closer. It was hard to describe in words; there was nearly no word in the mortal language that could do the feeling justice, but if she were to try: Amaterasu compared it to a hug that is there, but very far away. One could even say that it was like receiving a letter from a loved one that is very far away. You see what they wrote. You feel the emotion they put into each word. But it just isn't the same as hearing them come from the one who wrote them. There's a constant undercurrent of a bitter-sweet joy looming overhead. Soon, though, the maiden would be reunited with her children. Very soon.

The praise and love and joy became a part of her soul, and Amaterasu's power and essence grew until the aspects that made her divine expanded. This increase in essence and power manifested as a fourth ink-pot, greater divine health, and various other extremities that she'd lost over the century. (1)

"I guess you're getting stronger, cause I just saw your essence skyrocket!" proclaimed Issun. "Even with the few things you've done, you're already so strong!"

A moment of silence passed while Issun seemed to contemplate something. "Oh, I almost forgot!" he cried. "We better check in on that dude!"

Once again, Amaterasu found herself chortling in response to Issun's sheer energy. He was so rambunctious. She has never, in all her years, met someone more spunky than the green Poncol.

The divine maiden turned away from the rejuvenated environment and made a listless gait towards the merchant. Without the oppressive presence of the demons, the rotund and flamboyantly dressed merchant pulled a parasol from the purple pack on his back, popped the top open, and regarded the maiden with a bitter-sweet smile.

"Ah... I feel as light as a feather now!" The corners of his mouth played down with a frown. "Sadly, that doesn't make it any easier to shift this boulder. Who went and blocked the only path out of here anyway? There's no way I can get back to the city now."

The man's posture slumped in despair, and he continued to eye the maiden. Not long passed before the light of realization lit up the man's eyes.

"Hey, girl, you live in the village, right?" asked the merchant, hopefully. "So you must know that guy, _Susano_. Can you get him to come here?"

Amaterasu nodded, for she knew of him.

"Great!" he exclaims "They say he's the descendant of the legendary hero, Nagi. If anyone can do something about this rock-" the man reached over and patted the mighty boulder. "It's him."

Once again: The goddess nodded in response. She turned around and begin a purposeful gait towards the man's home. Halfway to her destination, Issun's mutterings began growing, progressively, more audible.

"That's strange..." he murmured, "that boulder wasn't there before."

Hearing the tune of jumbled thoughts and perplexed confusion, bubbling up into Issun's tone, wasn't something Amaterasu was use to. Being around mortals, even ones long-lived like her Poncol companion, possessed an undercurrent of frustration-frustration towards the ignorance of mortals. However, it wasn't there fault. The mortals weren't gods, and they most certainly did not possess the omniscient knowledge that the maiden held. No mortal could prevent their inherent greed from taking over if the ability to know all that was, is, and will be was given to them. But the fact that she couldn't hear a joke, without already knowing that the person was planning on telling it to her, the way it went, and the punchline, made her wish she could shoulder-off such knowledge to someone else-at times. Whilst submerged in thought, Amaterasu didn't notice how close she was to the wooden sign posted in front of the wood arch of Susano's home.

"Watch out, ya klutz!" proclaimed Issun.

Before she could respond, Ammy walked into the sign. It wasn't overly high, but it was high enough for the top's edge to catch her in the chin. She blinked once, then twice, and then, finally, she registered what occurred. However, it was a mere shifting of the facial muscles. There was no flinching or the resounding "Oh!" of minor pain. It was like a brick wall walked into a stiff rod. The maiden shook her head and circled around to the front of the sign and read the scrawled text. _The Great Worrier Susano_, it read.

"Ha, self-proclaimed!" retorted Issun. "And, geez... it's not even spelled right."

The bouncing speck took a moment to rest, and he was, in response to his chastising, awarded with Amaterasu suddenly pinching him between her thumb and pointer finger. Because of how her fingers held him: the maiden's digits muffled his riotous protests. She took Issun out of her luscious hair and fiddled with his tiny form until she got bored and, then, decided to flick his form past the wooden arch and underneath the first step leading up to the mighty warrior's, Susano, house. Then she continued her trek up to the building-it was quite the odd shape. The sheer oddness of the building's design couldn't be described in words; there was no way anyone could forget such a shape. However, it was the boisterous snoring (it made the structure creek and groan as it settled) resounding from within the building that was truly memorable. And even though it was muffled-it was loud.

"Hey! What's the big idea, throwin' me around like that!" Issun's was hopping mad.  
Amaterasu didn't give her tiny friend the pleasure of her attention. The obnoxious snoring was too transfixing. It was by sheer luck alone that the Poncol didn't get stepped on, as she began taking strides up to the building. This made Issun furious.

"Hey!" exclaimed Issun. "You can't just-"

The snoring interrupted him.

"Just-" once again, interrupted. "Susano! Why must you snore like a bear?!"

With a furious pace, the little man hopped up to the building's few steps and found his way on top of his partner's head. And he huffed as he sat down-steaming like a teapot held over an open flame.

"Not that you care... but this is the home of the two-bit, middle aged warrior, _Susano_," said Issun, still miffed. "As you know, he goes around claiming to be the _descendant of Nagi_. He's famous around here for his lineage, but he's awfully lazy and too off-the-wall to be a descendant of a legendary hero."

The maiden found it comical that Issun, of all people, was criticizing someone for being too off-the-wall and lazy. Susano was among the people Ammy remembered first. His deeds in this land were small and, mostly, complete accidents. He never went out of his way to help people, other than a certain brewer, unlike the descendant Nagi. She reached out and slid her fingers into the sunken slit of the wooden door. It was high time to judge the value of Nagi's descendant. _I hope you are as noble and virtuous as your great grandfather,_ she thought-hopefully.

* * *

1). YOU TRY MAKING A GAME MECHANIC LOGICAL AND REALISTIC WHEN YOU ARE HALF-ASLEEP!


	8. Chapter I, Page V

The maroon wooden door slid open with pitiful resistance, effortlessly squashed, a screech, and a blur of movement, practically splintering as the divine force slammed it into the arch of the entrance. Amaterasu grimaced at the shriek of the door as it was shouldered to the side like a discarded piece of scrap metal. For a moment, she lingered about the entrance to run her hand along the fissures now plaguing the once pristine surface, silently apologizing to the finely carved sliding door. But then she'd feel a sharp pinch-like pain, fleeting, that caused her to remove her hands from the wooden surface and start combing her luscious wintry locks for the cause of the pain. Of course, it was obvious who had done it-she figured his patience would start to run thin.

"Com'on!" Issun's small voice squeaked. "We gotta hurry up and get that blowhard out there, although I doubt he can do much..."

She drawled out an indistinct sigh before tending to where the fleeting pain originated from, gingerly massaging the spot with the velvety fingertip of her dainty forefinger. Then Amaterasu oscillated her head left and right in a listless manner, scrutinizing the purlieus abode of the descendant of Nagi. She would take note on how the exterior design of the looming building, materials cut with a great breadth, overwhelmingly belied the interior's legroom. The entrance directly connected with a small room, the only room, of a size smaller than the wingspan of eleven grown men in length and height, while about the length of six grown men's wingspan in width. Two large steps lead down from the ajar doorway, which matched the brown-themed color palette of the interior. And various wooden beams and crossbeams could be seen framing certain areas about the room, of which bordered the numerous paper window slits located near the ceiling. But the most eye-catching features of the sole room were the numerous intact and broken training swords scattered about and hanging from hooks on the walls, the miniature rise in the middle of the room that would act as a sort of Dohyō; rope marked the area of play and wooden dummies stood ready, and a curious alcove with a large, unfurled scroll concealing the contents within-poorly. However, the elephant in the room was the large bluish-gray jug situated in the back right corner of the room.

Amaterasu wasn't the only one to notice the jug, as Issun's glowing form sprung from her head and quickly bounded over and onto the wooden head of the jug. The speck then became still for a moment before bouncing to a different spot on the head, returning to his resting state, and then changing spots once again, repeating the process several times before the goddess finally sauntered over to perform her own investigation. Issun moved back to the first spot he jumped to and hopped back into Ammy's bountiful locks, nestling himself into her soft scalp.

"I swear, Ammy," he began as she examined the jug, "I swear I can hear snorin' comin' from under that jug."

She then placed her ear to the over-sized object's chilly surface and closed her eyes, focusing her senses to that which resided within and below the jug. It was true, there was a faint sound emanating from beneath the unusual furnishing. Discovering the noise and, possibly, the existence of a secret room beneath Susano's home felt queer to the maiden. The goddess knew that, up until then, she had never set foot in the house of Nagi's descendant; however, she still _knew_ about the room he dug out in clandestine. She knew that the jug was used to cover a plain hole and worn ladder, which led down into a dugout room smaller than the one she stood in. She also knew that the ladder stopped on a small, handmade staircase used to rise and ascend in the small pocket, as well as the fact that Susano used this room as a hideout for whenever the pressures and praise of being Nagi's descendant became too much to bear-he also used it to take an undisturbed rest. Amaterasu knew all these things and much more, everything there was to know regarding the hamlet and its residents. And numerous things she _knew_ of were things she had yet to discover or rediscover. Yes, the word 'rediscover' eased the peculiar strangeness that afflicted her mind. It just felt right to describe her findings and discoveries as re-findings and rediscoveries, things she knew existed and had visited before but never truly saw with her own eyes. She nodded in affirmation of his guess, smirking as the sound of his mumbles of pride and "as right as always" came to her ears-everyone deserved to have their ego stroked now and again.

"Well, ya know what ya gotta do," said Issun. "Use your ole slash technique and, poof, away the jug goes!"

The divine maiden giggled at the evidently enthusiastic tone to the sprite's squeaky voice, despite the knowledge of the selfish desire it stemmed from, before taking out and coating the tip of her forefinger with a small glob of ink. Then she blinked and swiped the finger across the air in front of her, opened her eyes, and watched as the air shifted and pressed against the existence of the jug. Pressure shifted and twisted about jug until reality experienced a small hiccup; in an instant, the essence of her child coalesced into an apparition, one only she could see, just long enough to split the object where the air pressed against it. And like that the jug had been cut straight through the middle, now merely two pieces for the goddess to pick up and set aside.

* * *

Once hidden beneath the large imposing and immovable object, the man-made hole leading into Susano's secret room was exposed. Amaterasu could see the head of the ladder resting against the inner rim of the circular entrance, could see the first rung of the dark brown wooden creation, and her ears were immediately greeted by the stentorian snoring of Nagi's descendant. She recalled a similar snore, however, quieter, having always emanated from the great hero when she caught him in a deep slumber. Hearing the same essence in the way his descendant emitted sound whilst sleeping brought back happy nostalgia to the goddess, but at the same time, it caused a wistful wave of reminiscence to wash over her heart-drowning it with dolorous emotions as the thought of time came to mind.

Time, to her, was a great executioner always hovering over her vulnerable, precious mortal children. It acted like a ruthless brigand, always making off with mortal lives. And the fact that she was powerless to stop its dastardly antics made it all the worse. When she implored it to provisionally slow down it would heed her request and slow down for a time, only to then begin anew without any concern for if she managed to correct whatever may have brought her grief. It cared not for anything within her realm of management, of which she bore a deep and motherly fondness for, as it was something far greater than even the mother of deities. And, staying true to its logically emotionless progression, it was Time that whittled away at the lives of those she guarded a century ago until they were nothing more than nutrients for the earth's soil. For this apathetic regard for the lives and cultures and cities and nations, it both raised and toppled, Amaterasu vehemently loathed time.

"_He-e-ey_, earth to ditsy!" cried a squeaky voice.

Her eyes blinked several times before her attention snapped to and focused on the green glowing speck repeatedly hopping up and down on the tip of her elegantly curved nose, a soft pinprick tickling her nose every time he landed. Involuntarily, her nose wrinkled at the faint tinkling sensation before, eventually, her head jerked back, she took in a sharp breath, and then jerked forward as an endearing sneeze passed her lips. This sudden movement, as well as the surprise gust of breath, knocked Issun off of her nose and propelled him down towards the handmade staircase. Whilst sailing through the air said poncle let out a long, high-pitched, and faintly audible scream.

Thankfully, the maiden's snowy canine ears snapped to, each swiveling to find the best position, as the sprite's voice greeted her acute hearing. Her head jerked down towards the hole before the rest of her body followed suit: both legs let her torso plummet towards the opening, her feet tipped forward, her arms stretched down to either side of the hole, and her fingers dug into the hardened earth as both her hands and arms worked to fling herself down through the entryway. She was through in an instant, a blur of motion that somehow transported the much larger woman past and below Issun. He fell onto the right mound of her bosom, an incredibly soft and plush cushion covered by silky cloth to break his fall, before bouncing up and down like he'd landed on a trampoline. Now, Issun had no complaints whatsoever in regards to the well-endowed means his ditsy sidekick broke his fall; in fact: he was quite tempted to take full advantage of the size difference between the mountain of flesh and his body after making contact. But something that infuriated him and caused his green aura to shift to a hostile red prevented him from doing so. And this became evident to Amaterasu when she felt the pint-sized boy launch up, breast acting as a springboard, and performed a landing that sent a sharp pinprick through the nerves of her sternum.

Surprised, the goddess emitted a small yelp as she shot up off the wooden planks. A hand mechanically rose to smack whatever offending item caused the pinprick annoyance, or so it seemed. While Issun expected to be swatted and crushed like a pesky flea, a thought that dawned on him when her hand's shadow blotted out his vision, he was taken aback when the maiden's hand slowed and then stopped mere inches away from hitting its mark. Then her forefinger and thumb curled down to warily, ever so warily, use the tips of her long, perfect fingernails to pinch the sprite's leafy cape before she lifted him up and off of her bosom. Still clutching the handle of his sword, _Denkomaru, _the insignificant blade slid out of the pin-sized hole from which it had been plunged into and sparkled with the bright golden crimson blood, flecks of inky black here and there, of the goddess, as if a cloud of twinkling stars that smoldered in the stark night sky was wreathed about the tool's tempered steel. Continuing to emit a hostile red glow, the pint-sized sprite leered at her with a vexed countenance whilst Amaterasu returned the expression with her own-apologetic-visage. Then she gingerly placed the poncle in the glorious mane of ringlets flowing from her scalp. At this, he responded with a neigh inaudible whisper that heralded the shift in color, green, of his aura. He'd forgive her-for now.

Amaterasu found herself standing on top of the landing of a makeshift staircase, and she resided near the back wall of the empty pocket beneath Susano's house. The feet of building's corner struts protruded out at all four corners of the cubicle basement, each firmly secured several inches beneath the ground. Cobwebs hung from the ceiling, especially around the corners, and stray boulders sat here and there. And situated at the right most wall were two standing torches that lit up the pocket placed in front of a raised stone platform with rather large figure lying atop it-fast asleep. The man was of a fair pigment that was darkened by a thin layer of caked-in grime, while his hair-bald in the middle-resembled the raised ebony wings of a sparrow. And connecting to the hair on top of his head was a thick and luxurious beard that practically concealed everything below his nose. Similarly, equally thick hair grew from the back of his hands and his forearms. His nose turned a faint shade of orange towards the tip. The man's eyes seemed rather small, though, but were made even smaller in comparison to the great bushy eyebrows, tightly knit together. Curiously, despite his rather fierce and chiseled visage, the man somehow managed to retain both a muscular and a somewhat unfit physique. And then there was his outfit: a dirty set of violet cloth befitting a warrior in training with a great wooden practice sword tossed aside, an orangish-red belt firmly tied around his waist, and black slip-on shoes. Without asking, Amaterasu knew that the man she saw, the source of the snoring discord, this man before her was none other than Susano, _Nagi's _descendant.

She sauntered down the handmade steps and approached the sleeping warrior, catching several suggestive mumbles directed towards the woman named Kushi made in his sleep. Truly, he was experiencing a dream that incited a hot fury if woken from.

"Come on Ammy!" cried Issun. "Let's wake this guy up!"

Amaterasu hoped her child could find it in his heart to forgive her for what she had to do, praying he would even as she moved to and knelt down next to his face, brought her hand over his forehead, and then flicked him-a bruise immediately formed where she struck him and a small crack appeared in the stone bed below him.

"What the!?" he cried with a baritone voice, eyes suddenly wide open.

* * *

Gradually, Susano picked himself up off the ground and began to simultaneously stretch and rub away the lingering sleep from his eyes. A yawn left his lips, fortissimo in all directions, that undoubtedly would make the leaves of plants tremble in anticipation for his next action. Then he hunched over, after stretching and popping his back, and gazed forward with a languid expression as he ran his fingertips across his lower back. It took him a moment to acknowledge the presence of the disheveled girl-a piteous visage of a girl that had been living in the wild for a long time but managed to find pretty clothing was what those who didn't believe in the gods saw-that he towered over with his unusual height. But when he did, his mien showed bewilderment for a split-second before shifting to that of a warrior that recently awoke from a long meditation. Susano immediately straightened up and crossed his arms over his chest, before raising a curled hand to cover his mouth as he cleared his throat.

"Ah, I feel so well rested!" he exclaimed. "I planned to meditate underground but fell fast asleep! And you, so bold to disturb me, who are you? And what business do you have with _Susano_, the greatest warrior ever? Do even the savages making do with the wild know of my great exploits now?" He didn't bother waiting for a reply to any of his inquiries, as he continued his seemingly rehearsed speech. "Well, vagabond, I'm not looking for apprentices-go back to the mountains and play with your monkey friends." He turned around and slowly got down and laid on his side, head propped on his hand. "How dare a mangy girl that doesn't understand the basics of manners like you interrupt my meditation!"

In response, Issun hopped down to the tip of the maiden's nose and scoffed, "Get a load of this guy. All brawn and no brains." Then he seemed to cup his hands around his mouth and shout over to Susano, "Quit messin' around and come with us!"

Hearing Issun's voice, Susano would immediately hop to his feet, spin around, and squint one eye and lean forward as he focused on Issun's diminutive form. "You snuck in here again!?" he cried out incredulously before leaning back and crossing his arms over his chest anew. "Quit bugging me you... you... bug!"

"I told you, don't call me a bug!" Issun squeaked in anger. "C'mon, Ammy, we're taking him with us!"

Sighing softly, Amaterasu nodded before reaching down and grasping Susano's ankle, something that took the warrior aback. As much as she detested bad impressions and hostile attitudes, she already knew what she'd have to resort to to get the man to cooperate. "What do you think you're doing?!" Effortlessly, she pulled up and slung him across her right shoulder-ignoring his protest. "Put me down this instant! What will the neighbors think?"  
Without wasting a second, the divine maiden leaped up to the landing of the staircase like whom she carried weighed nothing. Then she jumped up, dug her heels into the rock-hard earth and slapped her free open hand, sprung up off where she gripped the wall in a flourish of multicolored leaves and flower petals that slowly withered and died as they spiraled off, and then reached out to grab the edge of the opening and haul herself up and over it. Once out of the hole, she took a runner's stance before propelling herself forward in yet another explosion of leaves and petals, dashing forward at an incredible speed that caused flowers and tufts of grass and other small plants to sprout, and then wither away and die, where her feet soundlessly connected with the ground. Entire flower heads bloomed and trailed behind her, following the same pattern as the other vegetation that grew around her, as she covered the distance between Susano's house and the blocked exit in mere moments, all the while carrying a screaming and flailing warrior. It was only when she was close to the struggling merchant did she release the man from her grip, taking a step to the side when he impacted the dirt. The sound of the drop, as well as Susano's panicked flailing and struggle to peel himself off the ground, drew the rotund gentleman's attention-he positively beamed with elation upon seeing the great warrior standing before him.

"You mangy savage!" he exclaimed, quite irked. "You brought me all the way out here just to test yourself against me? Then prepare to taste the wrath of my blade, _Tohenboku_!" At the uttering of his blade, the man gripped the comedically large weapon slung over his shoulder's handle.

"H-hold on a minute!" interjected the merchant in an attempt, successful, to gain Susano's attention. "You're the legendary Susano?"

"Yep," replied Susano with gusto. "None other than Susano, the greatest warrior ever lived!" He paused for a moment, then leered at the man. "And by the way, never interrupt warriors engaged in battle!"

"But I have a favor to ask you: this huge boulder blocking the path is really getting in my way, can't you do something about it?"

"What!?" Susano then went silent for what felt like hours, a silence that caused a sad smile to spread on Amaterasu's lips.

"Come on! Please! I mean, you are Nagi's descendant, aren't you? Surely one stone's no match for your skills... right?"

She couldn't help but pity Susano, couldn't help but feel sorry for the man who was cursed to always live in the shadow of his ancestor. A few beads of sweat began to form and roll down the man's brow as he crossed his arms and pondered the idea. He hummed for a moment before stating, "It is certainly not beyond my ability."

The merchant, beaming like the sun, was practically jumping for joy. "Really? Great! OK, then! No time like the present. Go for it!"

"Wait!" At this point, both hands were outstretched in a gesture that said "stop!"

"A boulder of this size is not very easy, even for me!" In his tone was the subtle indication of improvisation. "This will require the utmost focus to magnify the power of my sword. I shall retire to the training grounds to make preparations." Already he was half way into a sprint back towards his house. "Wait for my return!" Then, before anyone could say something, he was out of sight.

Upon his departure, Issun piped up with a quiet voice, "I wonder... I've never seen this guy train seriously-ever..."

And before the maiden excused herself from the merchant's presence, she felt the newly born qualms the round individual had regarding Susano's ability to perform the request he asked of him.

* * *

Amaterasu sauntered back towards Susano's house, enjoying the feeling of cool and soft dirt that was interspersed between the patches of hardened soil. Then came the distinct shift as her soles began making contact with verdant blades of grass, each like a little feather that curled and inadvertently rubbed against her sensitive skin with each, repeated, application of weight. She drew near the makeshift training ground situated on the side of the man's house, but rather than continue walking, she stopped several yards short of where the swordsman was lying. In one hand he held and tipped back, repeatedly, a thing of sake while the other propped up his head. The sounds of nettled grumbling and mumbling rode along the breeze to greet her ears. But she disregarded them for the time being-Amaterasu desired to enjoy the tranquility.

Each breath that wafted past her supple lips mingled with the air and caused it to swirl about her frame like cotton candy, brushing past and flowing through her luxuriously long snow white and inky black-tipped tresses and ringlets. Her bangs swayed along her skin ever so gingerly, ever so subtly, as the wind twirled her hair in its wispy fingers, a faint halo of white and black forming about her head as her luscious locks swirled with the wind. Around her feet flowers and other aesthetically pleasing vegetation began to sprout and bloom, rapidly, in an exotic plethora of colors both common and foreign to Nippon. The grass around her, in its swaying, slowly shifted to a vibrant golden hue. She felt the sky breathe over the land and rustle the grass, causing it to brush against and tickle her feet, as the verdant ground of the hamlet rolled like dark green waves of water. Each current of air wafted across the tiny village in unison, circling around the cottages like a ring of children with their arms interlocked together before moving on and briefly attending to the perennial growths, both dead and thriving. Their respective scents were picked up and carried by the exuberant winds, the smell of death and decay combating with the scent of the colossal living evergreens for supremacy-eventually coming to a draw and manifesting as a rank and perverted odor of dying nature. And then it diffused out farther, gradually waning as it moved away from the source of its strength.

Permitting a short lapse of time to pass before breaking the idle tranquility she incited, Ammy took in a deep breath and opened her eyes, mien beaming, as she let the air waft past her partially parted lips yet again. Then she took a step forward, immediately depriving the playful breeze of its luster and caused the vegetation about her feet to wither away and die; the once golden grass returned to its original pigment. Her feet left the cool and dewy verdant blanket and stepped onto the patch of bare rock Susano used for his training area. The small rise of angular gray stone feebly prodded the maiden's soles like malnourished, pot-bellied children poking at an intimidating animal with a stick too long and too thin to support its own weight. And due to her incredibly light and ginger gait, there wasn't a sound to be heard as she approached the warrior.

"I know I told that merchant I could help," Susano grumbled, unaware of Amaterasu's presence, "but a boulder of that size? I don't care if I'm of a legendary bloodline, it's just too big!" With yet another tip of his jug of sake, nothing came out. Perplexed, he shook it over his mouth for a second before scowling into the pitch black mouth. "I can't believe I ran out of sake at a time like this!" Angrily, he simultaneously dropped onto his back and flung the container several yards away. "This won't do one bit-guess that's it for today. I can't train without sake to fuel the fire, "Why do today what can be put off until tomorrow?" That's doing things the Susano way!" He let out a hardy laugh before going silent again. "...I wish Kushi would come by with some of her sake..."

The maiden couldn't help but feel pity as he unknowingly admitted, although roundabout, to his lack of motivation-it was especially sorrowful for her to hear him spout excuses to the air knowing what she knew. In his ramblings, though, he inadvertently gave her the solution to the dilemma. All she had to do was procure sake, but not just any sake. He desired Kushi's brew in particular, and Amaterasu knew with absolute certainty that said brewer had just put the final touches on her recently brewed batch. So she stepped back several paces before spinning around and dashing towards the aforementioned woman's distillery. The water wheel she repaired churned ever so slowly, like a huge indolent beast engorged with water, as the woman inside diligently toiled away.

Mere seconds passed before the goddess reached her destination: in the doorway of Kushi's distillery. Unsurprisingly, an elegantly decorated jug of the alcoholic beverage she sought sat near the various apparatuses used in the process of concocting the drink. And located near the jug was the beatific brewer, her scrutiny glued to the mechanisms and the products they tirelessly worked towards. So engaged in her examination, the woman failed to take notice of her presence; subsequently, she remained oblivious even after the disappearance of both the maiden and the jar of sake. She wouldn't mind its absence, Amaterasu knew this to be fact.

With the alcohol in hand, the woman listlessly made her way back to Susano's house and approached said person. She extended her arms and hands, offering the drink, whilst beaming a wide and closed-eyed smile. Immediately, the warrior scrambled up to his feet and gawked at her and the offering, the offering specifically. He sniffed it once, twice, three times before noticeably licking and smacking his lips as if parched. The shine in his eyes resembled that of a starved animal desperate for a meal, and his visage trembled ever so slightly as if in anticipation for some momentous instance of spiritual fulfillment.

"That smell..." he said in a hushed and drawling voice. "Is that Kushi's famous home-brewed sake?"

Before the man could continue, Amaterasu flashed him with a smile and handed the alcoholic beverage to him. Suffice to say, he was sufficiently shocked.

"M-m-my friend! Did you bring me some of Kushi's sake?" he asked in a panic, firmly clutching the handles of the sake bottle. "Oh, what a glorious day!" He then partook of the drink, sipping at it gingerly at first before taking several large gulps. "Good Ol' sake-a man without his drink is like a warrior without his trusty sword! In fact, it is said that Nagi himself relied on the power of sake in his battle with the dreaded Orochi."

Amaterasu couldn't help but nod in affirmation, still beaming, as she recalled the battle's events from a century ago.

"It's all so clear now!" he proclaimed after taking yet another gulp of the brew. "Let the training begin!"

Immediately, Susano swiveled around to face the dummies of his training ground. He shifted his weight from foot to foot, stance firm yet fluid, as he sized up the fabricated opponents. The woman cocked her head curiously at this, pondering, yet already knowing, what his training routine consisted of. Incidentally, she'd get to know as he exclaimed, in a booming voice, "Ok! Here I come!"

From his back he drew the oversized sword, twirled it once, and then slid it under his left arm before gripping the thinnest part of the blade to keep it held aloft. Then he made a flourish with his right hand. And then Susano propelled himself forward with a mighty lunge that sent him several inches behind the first stuffed dummy; if Ammy hadn't the eyes she did, she'd never have seen him move his blade. Light filled Amaterasu's eyes momentarily and the inky black streaks in her hair, of which seemed to float as if in water, and on her skin deepened in hue as if they had become a fathomless abyss-these were the subtle signs of her using her celestial powers. In a grand display that managed to trim an inch off the blades of grass underneath, the target was split in half perfectly. It then began to tip over, but the warrior moved before it could begin its descent. He dashed over to his next cottony victim with yet another shockingly fast swipe of his blade, and Ammy's body exhibited the same temporary signs it had before. From the ether, as before, an invisible, small form manifested where Susano once stood before following the same path he had-it took the weapon it wielded and splintered the wood and cloth dummy in half once again.

Without missing a beat, the man whipped around yet again and faced the jagged boulder that protruded from the very edge of his training area. He made a slow flourish with his blade before reaching back and holding it over his right shoulder, body tensing for another attack.

"Feast your eyes on this!" he bellowed. "Susano-Style... Exploding Implosion!"

On his final word, the manifestation of Tachigami performed its own dazzling flourish a moment before it launched itself up into the air and twirled and swung his sword about in a manner much like the first time he'd been reunited with the great goddess. Several moments passed as he danced about with his blade in the air, of which quickly came to an end as he came within reach of the boulder-the Kami cut the jagged stone as if it was sashimi. And then, with a final cut, the manifestation made a broad swipe along the base of the rock, splitting it in half and causing the entire thing to fall to pieces, each thudding to the ground with a hefty weight.

The mere sight of the boulder falling apart caused Susano to jump back in surprise, a sound of bewilderment leaving his lips. Then, after a moment, he seemed to steel himself before dashing off to where the merchant and the monolithic stone resided-emitting a determined scream all the way there. Ammy was quick to chase, purposefully moving slower than the warrior, as he'd definitely need her aid whether he knew it or not. Once there, Susano assumed his fighting stance before exclaiming, "Susano-Style... Exploding Implosion!" Then he sprung forward with a mighty leap and a slash across the face of the rock. And once more, again, the signs returned to the maiden's body momentarily as the same manifestation performed yet another flourish of wasted grandeur that left the mighty stone cut into minuscule fragments of its once formidable self. After it was all said and done, Susano was left utterly bemused and examining his sword in confusion, flipping and turning it every which way.

Sauntering up in awe, the merchant marveled at the spectacle, "Th-th-that's amazing! You cut that huge rock into tiny pieces! You are really something!"

Even Issun, who seemed a bit slow on the uptake, commented on the feat, "Wow, I didn't think you had it in you, pops!"

Susano, however, responded to their praise with a small mumble and a glance over his shoulder, "Me either..." But then slung his sword over his back and turned around, bringing his hand over his mouth to cough before crossing his arms over his chest. "I mean, of course I could!"

Feeling a bit dramatic, he took hold of the hilt of his sword and hoisted it up into the air, posing like his ancestor once did, as he proclaimed, "After all, I am Susano, the greatest warrior ever!"

And then the merchant went on with praising. "You weren't just showing off when you said you're Nagi's descendant! Someone like you'd have no trouble fighting off monsters, huh?" This comment caused Susano to start sweating bullets. "Well anyway, thanks a lot. Now I can start doing business again." Then off the rotund man went, off to set up his shop.

"Did you say, m-m-monsters?" murmured Susano. "Oh, uh... Of course, no problem. This is a job for the most skilled warrior in Nippon! Yes! I shall rid these lands of their vile presence! Just sit back and watch the great Susano work his magic!" Then off he ran, at breakneck speeds, with a hard, bellowing laugh trailing behind him.

Several moments after he disappeared from view, Issun wondered aloud, "Think he'll be OK? The monsters outside the village are nasty."

And to this, Amaterasu merely shrugged.

Vivid pink cherry blossoms began to flitter through the air, dancing on the wind as if caught in an eternal waltz, as the scent of blooming flowers and budding trees met Issun and Ammy's noses. Then came the gentle and soothingly alluring voice of Sakuya. Her loving tone naturally comforted the ears of the listener, cushioning them as if they were lying their head in the lap of their wonderful wife.

"Ah... Glorious Amaterasu..." as she began, a small cloud of cherry blossoms behind the two marked where she would take material form. "What a pleasure to witness your heroic deeds! I am in awe. When you cleaved the boulder in two, my heart skipped a beat. To see your skill with the brush to be witness to great art."

Interjecting, Issun bounced off the maiden's head and onto the ground, "Yeah? Do we get a reward or something, lady?"

"I hardly think your participation had any impact, little bug."

Amaterasu couldn't help but smile at their childish remarks.

"It's Issun! Issun, Issun, Issun! Stop calling me a bug! I'll crawl back into your kimono if you say that again!"

This stunned Sakuya, "My word!"

"Relax lady, Ditzy here's more comfy anyway." This caused Amy to glance up in his direction. "Let's get back to that reward thing you were talking about. C'mon, Ammy. Put your hand up or something... Go on, shake!" And to this Ammy responded by reaching up and bringing her hand down onto the bouncing poncle.

As Issun struggled vehemently, Sakuya looked away for a moment. "I must apologize. I would like to reward you, but I'm afraid I haven't the power. I can barely muster the strength to make a flower bloom." To make her point, she gestured to the old and withered tree that stood above everything in the small hamlet. Then she went on, "Though my body stands firmly here within the confines of the village, my roots spread far and wide, protecting remote areas outside. These parts of me are known as _Guardian Saplings_. They collect the praise and adoration that gives me strength. But, now, the recent evil is eroding the Guardian Saplings..." her voice become noticeably despondent, "If this continues, I will wilt away as well, and my power will vanish. Worse yet, the evil power grows stronger with each passing day. Life as we know it will be consumed in no time."

When Sakuya looked back to Issun and Amaterasu, she found the latter to be staring off into space-watching some unseen force float listlessly about her face.

"Aw, man... this is getting heavy."

Despite the clear loss of interest, Sakuya continued, "Great and powerful Amaterasu! Could I be so bold as to request your assistance in rejuvenating these Guardian Saplings by uplifting the curse that enslaves them? With your divine knowledge, I am sure you've already located where these perennial growths protrude from the ground-so I beseech you, please save this land your father and mother so lovingly crafted!"

A moment passed and Sakuya then looked faint, and in a strained voice she muttered, "I have grown tired... I haven't the strength to even speak now. I hope that my request has not fallen on deaf ears... Amaterasu, may the fresh scent of flowers protect you always!" Then, in an instant, her body bent back as her very being began to disintegrate into the same cloud of cherry blossoms-which were noticeably brown and decayed-that formed her.

Following her departure, Issun scoffed and bounced towards to the canyon-like formation that lead into and out of the village. "I'm always itchin' for a good fight, but... I sure don't want to poke my nose into this mess!" He settled for a moment and pondered his situation before speaking aloud to himself once more. "Still, I'm stuck with ditsy over there till I get all the brush skills." Finishing his thought, he bounced on top of Ammy's head once again before settling into her scalp. "Anyway, Ammy's a god and all... What could possibly go wrong?"

Issun produced a high-pitched whistle to gain Amaterasu's attention. "Did you hear her ditsy? You get the rest of the brush techniques to save the world, and I'll steal and learn 'em! Yeah, that's the ticket! At any rate, let's start with your "divine knowledge", so go ahead and lead the way to the first sapling!"

And while Amaterasu would do that which she was obligated to carry out, she first had tie up several loose ends within the hamlet. She knew locations of countless forgotten heirlooms and treasures scattered about the small plot of land, and she couldn't in good conscience allow such sentimental tokens of personal history go on missing. Thus, an hour came and went by, in which she spent swimming and diving through the rivers and ponds, swung across branches and climbed up trees, scaled both rock and man-made structures alike, and generally ran from place to place all about the hamlet, all to acquire that which she sought. Each time she located a memento she returned it, posthaste, and then moved on to attaining the next. With every task competed and each memento returned, the overwhelming bliss and elation felt several times before would well-up inside of her anew like a dried hot springs connected to a new source of water. And just like a dried up hot spring, the surge of warmth and adulation filled her with a vehement vigor that gradually began to graft itself onto her quintessence, the very culmination of her divinity, and effectively bolstered the strength of this essence. She felt her constitution, stamina, strength, speed, and everything come closer to what she once possessed a hundred years prior. And then, once every feasibly attainable item sequestered within the village, she proceeded to use what little yen she'd garnered to purchase several items and help the financial status of the jolly merchant. Then she began the long trek through the trail that cut through the plateau sitting along the eastern side of Kamiki, waving goodbye to the location as a whole as she did.


End file.
